Solar evaporation, which enables water purification without consuming fossil fuels, has been considered the most promising strategy to address global scarcity of drinkable water. However, the suboptimal structure and composition designs still result in a trade‐off between photothermal conversion, water transport, and tolerance to harsh environments. Here, an ultrastable amorphous Ta2O5/C nanocomposite is designed with a hollow multishelled structure (HoMS) for solar evaporation. This HoMS results in highly efficient photoabsorption and photothermal conversion, as well as a decrease of the actual water evaporation enthalpy. A superfast evaporation speed of 4.02 kg m−2 h−1 is achieved. More importantly, a World Health Organization standard drinkable water can be achieved from seawater, heavy‐metal‐ and bacteria‐containing water, and even from extremely acidic/alkaline or radioactive water sources. Notably, the concentration of pseudovirus SC2‐P can be decreased by 6 orders of magnitude after evaporation.
Water Purification
In article number 2107400, Suojiang Zhang, Dan Wang, and co‐workers report an ultrastable amorphous Ta2O5/C nanocomposite with a hollow multishelled structure for solar evaporation, which results in highly efficient photoabsorption, photothermal conversion, and promoted water transport. Thus, a superfast evaporation speed of 4.02 kg m−2 h−1 is achieved. Importantly, the ion concentration meets the World Health Organization's drinking‐water standard after purification, even under extreme conditions.
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