Conventional desalination technologies play a central role in alleviating the crisis of increasing freshwater shortages, however, impeded by high cost, intensive energy consumption and environmental pollution. Solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE)...

Delivering sufficient water to the evaporation surface/interface is one of the most widely adopted strategies to overcome salt accumulation in solar‐driven interfacial desalination. However, water transport and heat conduction loss are positively correlated, resulting in the trade‐off between thermal localization and salt resistance. Herein, a 3D hydrogel evaporator with vertical radiant vessels is prepared to surmount the long‐standing trade‐off, thereby achieving high‐rate and stable solar desalination of high‐salinity. Experiments and numerical simulations reveal that the unique hierarchical structure, which consists of a large vertical vessel channel, radiant vessels, and porous vessel walls, facilitates strong self‐salt‐discharge and low longitudinal thermal conductivity. With the structure employed, a groundbreaking comprehensive performance, under one sun illumination, of evaporation rate as high as 3.53 kg m−2 h−1, salinity of 20 wt%, and a continuous 8 h evaporation is achieved, which thought to be the best reported result from a salt‐free system. This work showcases the preparation method of a novel hierarchical microstructure, and also provides pivotal insights into the design of next‐generation solar evaporators of high‐efficiency and salt tolerance.

Coping with the shortage of fresh water and electricity in off-grid and resource-constrained areas through sustainable strategies has become the most urgent challenge facing the development of human society. Herein, we propose a low-cost and sustainable way of repurposing discarded pomelo peel by converting it into 3D porous carbon foam (i.e., carbonized pomelo peel, referred to as CPP) with multichannel waterways for synergetic coupling of solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) and low-grade heat-to-electricity generation. The superhydrophilic 3D porous CPP with multichannel waterways utilizes its powerful water supply capability to avoid salt accumulation during continuous seawater desalination. By cautiously weighing the water transport and thermal management of CPP-based evaporators, CPP with three-channel waterways (CPP3) can achieve efficient solar-driven evaporation (the evaporation rate of 1.37 kg m −2 h −1 , one sun) on the premise of salt resistance through its superior light absorption and ultrafast solar-thermal response. Besides, a collaborative device integrating CPP3 and a commercial thermoelectric (TE) generator is designed for synchronous generation of solar steam and thermoelectricity, which can simultaneously achieve an evaporation rate of 1.39 kg m −2 h −1 and a power output of 0.5 W m −2 under one sun illumination. Such a cost-effective and easy-to-manufacture strategy can provide potential opportunities for satisfying the demand for fresh water and electricity in resource-constrained areas.

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Organic small-molecule semiconductors have higher carrier mobility compared to polymer semiconductors, while the actual performances of these materials are susceptible to morphological defects and misalignment of crystalline grains. Here, a new strategy is explored to control the crystallization and morphologies of a solution-processed organic small-molecule semiconductor 2,7-dioctyl[1]­benzothieno­[3,2-b]­[1]­benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) using soluble polymer films to control the wettability of substrates. Different from the traditional surface modification method, the polymer layer as a modification layer is soluble in the semiconductor solution during the fabrication of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The dissolved polymer alters the state of the semiconductor solution, which in turn, changes the crystallographic morphologies of the semiconductor films. By controlling the solubility and thickness of the polymer modification layers, it is possible to regulate the grain boundary and domain size of C8-BTBT films, which determine the performances of OTFTs. The bottom-gate transistors modified by a thick PS layer exhibit a mobility of >7 cm2/V·s and an on/off ratio of >107. It is expected that this new modification method will be applicable to high-performance OTFTs based on other small molecular semiconductors and dielectrics.

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