Nature-inspired sustainable solar evaporators for seawater desalination

Abstract

A solar steam generation system provides an effective way to use solar energy to desalinate seawater, which is an important technology to solve the shortage of freshwater resources. However, it remains a challenge to improve the evaporation rate and lifetime of solar evaporators. Many interesting structures in nature are essential for the survival of living organisms. Some biomimetic structures applied to solar evaporators greatly improved the evaporation performance. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive overview of the important advances in the application of biomimetic structures to solar evaporators. This paper presents an overview of the application of biomimetic structures to solar evaporators. It focuses on the materials used to prepare solar evaporators, the methods of preparing solar evaporators, and the role of biomimetic structures in solar evaporators. Finally, the current applications of biomimetic structures in solar evaporators are discussed and summarized.