A self-rotating solar evaporator for continuous and efficient desalination of hypersaline brine

Abstract

Benefiting from wide solar energy access and high energy conversion efficiency, solar-driven interfacial water evaporation has shown great potential in critical separation processes such as desalination and waste brine treatment. However, salt accumulation on the evaporation surfaces of these evaporators still greatly limits their continuous and efficient operation, particularly in hypersaline brine desalination. Current methods suffer from either low salt tolerance or low energy efficiency. Here we show a novel self-rotating solar evaporator, which achieves ultrahigh salt tolerance (300 g L⁻¹) and energy efficiency (around 90%) simultaneously by periodic self-regeneration. This study advances the development of solar-thermal desalination technologies for practical applications.