From Avicennia marina to solar desalination: A bioinspired 3D evaporator for highly-efficient water evaporation and non-photothermal interfacial salt accumulation toward high-concentration brine

Interfacial solar evaporation has drawn widespread attention as a green and sustainable approach toward fresh water scarcity. However, the conflict between high evaporation rate and strong salt resistance has become a fundamental challenge limiting the applications of 3D evaporators. Herein, inspired by Avicennia marina , a rectangular 3D wood evaporator with deliberate device architecture of its water supply paths is developed for simultaneous high-efficiency water evaporation and good salt resistance via non-photothermal interfacial salt accumulation. Owing to the outstanding optical property and water activation ability of photothermal materials, as well as optimized water supply design, the resulting 3D evaporator achieves an impressive evaporation rate of 3.43 kg·m −2 ·h −1 for pure water under 1 sun irradiation. High and stable evaporation performances are also demonstrated for high-concentration brine (3.13 kg·m −2 ·h −1 , 15 wt% for 9 h) and long-term solar desalination (3.33 kg·m −2 ·h −1 , 3.5 wt% for 24 h), without salt accumulation on the evaporation interface. This work provides a contribution to promoting the salt resistance of 3D evaporators via novel water supply design for potential applications.