Interfacial solar vapor generation (ISVG) is an emerging
technology
to alleviate the global freshwater crisis. However, high-cost, low
freshwater collection rate, and salt-blockage issues significantly
hinder the practical application of solar-driven desalination devices
based on ISVG. Herein, with a low-cost copper plate (CP), nonwoven
fabric (NWF), and insulating ethylene–vinyl acetate foam (EVA
foam), a multistage device is elaborately fabricated for highly efficient
simultaneous freshwater and salt collection. In the designed solar-driven
device, a superhydrophobic copper plate (SH-CP) serves as the condensation
layer, facilitating rapid mass and heat transfer through dropwise
condensation. Moreover, the hydrophilic NWF is designed with rational
hydrophobic zones and specific high-salinity solution outlets (Design-NWF)
to act as the water evaporation layer and facilitate directional salt
collection. As a result, the multistage evaporator with eight stages
exhibits a high water collection rate of 2.25 kg m–2 h–1 under 1 sun irradiation. In addition, the
desalination device based on the eight-stage evaporator obtains a
water collection rate of 13.44 kg m–2 and a salt
collection rate of 1.77 kg m–2 per day under natural
irradiation. More importantly, it can maintain a steady production
for 15 days without obvious performance decay. This bifunctional multistage
device provides a feasible and efficient approach for simultaneous
desalination and solute collection.