Food along with water, clothes, and shelter has long been considered as basic necessities for human life. [1] However, the reality is that people all around the globe continue to have difficulties in fulfilling their fundamental survival requirements. Rising population, unplanned urbanization, climate change, global energy, and natural resource crises are exacerbating these issues. Despite the fact that water covers more than three-quarters of the Earth's surface, providing fresh water as a fundamental requirement in certain drought-prone areas remains a problem. [2,3] Reducing the conflict between demand and availability for fresh water has become a significant problem in recent decades. According to World Health Organization (WHO), a shortage of freshwater resources may impact half of the world's population in the near future. [4,5] As a result, reliance on nontraditional sources, that is, purification of saltwater, sewage, and industrial effluents, must be increased to ease pressure on conventional water sources. [6][7][8] However, excessive levels of germs and hard particles in water from nontraditional sources may induce illnesses such as typhoid, jaundice, cholera, dysentery, and others. [9] Nevertheless, identifying alternative freshwater sources and implementing sustainable techniques for reusing and recycling water from unconventional sources may be a viable way to address the worldwide problem of freshwater shortage.Recent research on the generation of freshwater has revealed that methods such as reverse osmosis, electrodialysis, thermal desalination, and multiple-effect distillation need a high consumption of fossil fuels, a substantial initial investment, and the emission of polluting gas. [10][11][12] Thus, an interfacial solar-driven steam generation (ISSG)-based system is always recommended as a good candidate for seawater desalination, sterilizing, and wastewater treatment owing to its sustainability, cost-effectiveness, environmental friendliness, as well as ease of operation. In contrast to the natural water evaporation system, the ISSG-based system uses the heat localization method to heat only the portion of water which is associated with the airÀwater interface rather than the bulk water, substantially increasing the water evaporation rate. This technique utilizes the radiant heat from the sun with the assistance of photothermal energy conversion material, making it a promising sustainable solution to the water crisis. Furthermore, with proper design, heat loss can be minimized, allowing this technique to generate enough steam for water desalination, purification, and many other applications. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The selection of photothermal energy conversion materials for the ISSG mainly depends on the material's optical absorption spectra, photothermal conversion efficiency, sustainability, and duration of transmitting water to the heating surface (Figure 1). Researchers have investigated many naturally processed materials and nanoparticles (NPs) to design an efficient
