Synergistic evaporative and radiative cooling for high-efficiency solar water purification with long-term anti-fouling stability

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation offers a promising sustainable approach to clean water production, leveraging its low carbon footprint and adaptability to diverse environments. Despite advancements in enhancing solar vapor generation rates, inefficient condensation heat dissipation remains a major limitation, reducing overall water collection efficiency. Here, we present a synergistic evaporative cooling and radiative cooling (SECRC) strategy that significantly boosts solar-driven clean water production by effectively dissipating condensation heat. Using a titanium dioxide nanocrystal-coated delignified wood substrate (DW-TiO 2 NC) as the SECRC platform, we achieved a 2.5-fold increase in heat dissipation flux and enhanced vapor diffusion towards the condensation interface. This innovation improved water production efficiency from 0.50 to 0.80. Furthermore, the TiO 2 coating provided exceptional environmental anti-fouling capabilities, maintaining a stable outdoor water collection rate with only ∼9 % reduction after one month of exposure, compared to an 18 % decline in uncoated systems. This all-passive, single-solar-powered SECRC system delivers an efficient, stable, and practical solution to address global clean water challenges, marking a transformative advancement in solar water purification technology.