Porous media for solar-driven interfacial evaporation: Fundamentals, materials, architectures, and applications

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) spans seawater desalination, wastewater treatment, sterilization, and energy harvesting. Water evaporation from porous media effectively localizes photothermal conversion at the water-air interface, minimizing heat loss, and achieving high solar-to-vapor efficiencies. Advances in broadband photothermal materials, hierarchical porous architectures, and surface wettability engineering enhance photothermal conversion, water transport, vapor escape, and salt management, ensuring stable performance even in hypersaline conditions. Strategies including thermal insulation, directional vapor channels, phase-change assisted heat storage, and self-cleaning mechanisms, further improve heat and mass flux stability and durability of the system. Simulation-guided studies offer mechanistic insights into the effects of graded pores, vascular-inspired channels, and fin geometries on heat and mass transport. This review examines recent advances in materials, architectures, and transport principles in SDIE, providing a concise framework to guide the development of practical, high-performance, and decentralized clean-water technologies.