Photothermal Materials: A Plant‐Transpiration‐Process‐Inspired Strategy for Highly Efficient Solar Evaporation (Adv. Sustainable Syst. 6/2017)

In article number 1700046, Xiaokong Liu, Haoloan Xu and co-workers report on a new photothermal material based solar steam generation system. Inspired by the natural transpiration process of plants, this new system is derived from natural wood and polydopamine, while being cost effective and straightforward to fabricate. When used for solar steam generation, an important process for ensuring a supply of clean water, it demonstrates extremely high efficiencies—87% under one solar illumination, and seemingly over 100% under enhanced illumination, which can be explained by the explosive evaporation effect at the material surface.