A review on state of art of photothermal nanomaterials for interfacial solar water evaporation and their applications

Nowadays, water pollution and freshwater scarcity are global issues affecting social development and sustainable economic growth. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop cost-effective, efficient, and scalable technologies for purifying wastewater and seawater. In this review, the recent progress in solar steam generation, focusing on materials selection for photothermal conversion, substrates, particularly Janus membranes were thoroughly discussed. Additionally, emerging applications such as electricity generation, photocatalysis, water purification, steam sterilization, and desalination were explored. Finally, recommendations from a scientific standpoint to guide future research directions, promote improvements, and realize practical applications was offered. Based on our review, exploring hybrid photothermal materials immobilized in hydrophobic photothermal polymers as the upper layer of Janus membranes due to their synergistic effects was recommended. Moreover, there is a dearth of research on this topic to date, making it a promising avenue for future investigation.