Water‐Heat Synergistic Regulation to Optimize Water State and Enhance Thermal Effect in Solar Interfacial Evaporation

ABSTRACT

Solar‐driven interfacial evaporation is a promising solution to the global freshwater shortage. However, current evaporation systems typically suffer from low water management efficiency and poor interfacial thermal effects. This work proposes a strategy to synergistically enhance the heat and mass transport of solar interfacial evaporators by balancing water transport capacity and water activity and reverse heat compensation. A higher proportion of loosely bound intermediate water (IW) with low enthalpy of vaporization is induced by in situ construction of a hydrophilic micron‐to‐submicron hierarchical pore structure within the wood‐based biomass framework, while maintaining its water pumping capacity. Simultaneously, a biomimetic thermal compensation mechanism significantly enhances the thermal effect of the wood‐based biomass evaporation interface (temperature up to 50.7°C). This synergistic design enables a record evaporation rate of 5.12 kg m ⁻² h ⁻¹ in wood‐based evaporators. Furthermore, the vertically distributed hierarchical pore structure and surface polar groups endow it with excellent salt repellency and antifouling capabilities. This reported water‐heat management strategy provides a scalable, low‐cost, and environmentally friendly approach to highly efficient solar interfacial evaporation.