Yangying Zhu

Introduction and background Water scarcity is one of the most critical global challenges of our time, affecting billions of people worldwide.1 While oceans contain 99.98% of Earth’s water, their high salinity makes them unsuitable for human consumption.2 This scarcity has serious societal consequences, including increased infant mortality,3 food shortages,4 and hindered socioeconomic development.5 As climate change disrupts ecosystems and industrial pollutants further contaminate freshwater...

Main text It has been 13 years since the first report on the concept of interfacial solar evaporation. The initial targeted application of solar evaporation was seawater desalination. It should be noted that interfacial solar evaporation desalination technology does not compete with current commercial desalination technology (for example, reverse osmosis, multi-effect desalination, electrodialysis, etc.).