Advancing robust all-weather desalination: a critical review of emerging photothermal evaporators and hybrid systems

作者：Yue Zhou, Zelin Wang, Xuemin Chen, Jianglong Ji, Liang Zhang, Chao Meng · 发表于：Communications Materials · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s43246-025-00747-w · 被引用次数：38 · 研究领域：Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods、Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic Systems、Membrane Separation Technologies

All-weather solar-driven desalination systems, integrating photothermal evaporators with hybrid technologies, present a sustainable, cost-effective, and high-efficiency strategy for freshwater production. Despite significant advancements, previous reviews have predominantly focused on daytime evaporation, neglecting the broader scope of all-weather seawater evaporation. This review provides a comprehensive examination of the current status of all-weather seawater evaporators and their hybrid systems. Initially, the review details the system’s composition and operating principles, as well as the design criteria for high-performance evaporators. It then goes over various common photothermal conversion materials for seawater desalination, with a particular emphasis on those materials tailored for all-weather applications. It also offers an in-depth overview to the developed photothermal hybrid systems for all-weather seawater evaporation, including their working principles, the efficiency of evaporation across the day-night cycle, and their practical applications. Lastly, the existing challenges and potential research opportunities are thoroughly discussed. All-weather solar-powered desalination systems are more demanding in terms of materials and system design compared to daytime-only systems. This Review discusses all-weather seawater evaporators, with a focus on photothermal conversion materials and their hybrid systems.