2D Meshy Metal Solar Evaporator Facilitating High-Efficiency Vapor Diffusion and Water Harvesting in Environments of Minimal Convective Flows

Solar evaporation has attracted great attention regarding renewable energy capture and freshwater production. However, clean water production is still limited by the heat loss and low evaporation rate of water. Herein, a two-dimensional (2D) meshy MoS2/Ti membrane-based evaporator (MTiE) is designed to optimize the vapor diffusion process, which can harvest energy from the environment after reaching the equilibrium state. The 2D meshy metal structure dramatically reduces vapor diffusion resistance and improves the effective evaporation area, resulting in larger vapor concentration gradients and faster water collection rates. The MTiE exhibits a high evaporation rate of 6.4 kg m–2 h–1 and a high-yield water rate of up to 2.7 kg m–2 h–1 under one sun (1 kW m–2) coupled with an ultralow convection flow rate of 0.2 m s–1. Besides, the flexible MTiE shows excellent salt resistance and stability. The 2D meshy structure provides a new pathway for faster vapor diffusion and water collection in solar evaporators.