Self-Repairing and Damage-Tolerant Hydrogels for Efficient Solar-Powered Water Purification and Desalination

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation has emerged as an innovative and sustainable technology for efficient, clean water production. Real-world applications depend on new classes of low-cost, lightweight, and robust materials that can be integrated into one monolithic device, which withstands a variety of realistic conditions on open water. Self-repairing building blocks are highly desired to prevent permanent failures, recover original functions and maintain the lifetime of interfacial steam generators, although related studies are scarce to date. For the first time, a monolithic, durable, and self-floating interfacial steam generator with well-defined structures is demonstrated by integrating self-healing hydrogels through facile processes in surface modulation and device fabrication. High and stable water evaporation rates over 2.0 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ are attained under 1 sun on both fresh water and brine with a broad range of salinity (36–210 g kg⁻¹). The solar evaporation and desalination performance are among the best-performing interfacial steam generators and surpass a majority of devices that are constructed by composite polymers as structural components. This study provides a perspective and highlights the future opportunities in self-healing and damage-tolerant materials that can simultaneously improve the performance, durability, and lifetime of interfacial steam generators in real-world applications.     

Bioinspired,Sustainable, High-Efficiency Solar Evaporators for Sewage Purification

To alleviate the severe water crisis, an interfacial solar evaporator provides a promising method to produce freshwater. Although many superior solar evaporators present high evaporation rates by reducing the water evaporation enthalpy, adapting sustainable materials to construct high-efficiency solar evaporators remains challenging. Herein, inspired by the corncob pith's structure and functional groups, interconnected porous cellulose hydrogel is proposed by crosslinking sustainable hydroxypropyl cellulose. Benefiting from the porous structure and abundant hydroxy group, the corncob pith/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and cellulose hydrogel/CNTs evaporators show a low evaporation enthalpy of 880.5 ± 42.1 and 1280.7 ± 57.8 J g⁻¹ due to the reduced hydrogen bond numbers between water molecules and enable evaporation rates of 3.06 and 2.56 kg m⁻² h⁻¹, respectively. Moreover, the evaporators present superior purification performance for seawater and sewage, and show excellent anti-biological fouling properties under light irradiation. It is anticipated that the bionic strategy would provide an in-depth understanding of designing next-generation sustainable solar evaporators in the framework of the dual-carbon concept.     

Dual-Zone Photothermal Evaporator for Antisalt Accumulation and Highly Efficient Solar Steam Generation

Interfacial solar steam generation offers a promising and cost-effective way for saline water desalination. However, salt accumulation and deposition on photothermal materials during saline and brine evaporation is detrimental to the stability and sustainability of solar evaporation. Although several antisalt strategies are developed, it is difficult to simultaneously achieve high evaporation rates ( > 2.0 kg m⁻² h⁻¹) and energy efficiencies. In this study, a self-rotating photothermal evaporator with dual evaporation zones (i.e., high-temperature and low-temperature evaporation zones) is developed. This photothermal evaporator is sensitive to weight imbalance ( < 15 mg) thus is able to quickly respond to salt accumulation by rotation to refresh the evaporation surface, while the dual evaporation zones optimize the energy nexus during solar evaporation, simultaneously realizing excellent salt-resistant performance and high evaporation rate (2.6 kg m⁻² h⁻¹), which can significantly contribute to the real-world application of solar steam generation technology.     

Intensifying Heat Using MOF-Isolated Graphene for Solar-Driven Seawater Desalination at 98% Solar-to-Thermal Efficiency

Photothermal materials are crucial for diverse heating applications, but it remains challenging to achieve high energy conversion efficiency due to the difficulty to concurrently improve light absorbance and suppress heat loss. Herein, a zeolitic imidazolate framework-isolated graphene (G@ZIF) nanohybrid is demonstrated that utilizes ultrathin, heat-insulating ZIF layers, and G@ZIF interfacial nanocavity to synergistically intensify light absorbance and heat localization. Under artificial sunlight illumination (≈1 kW m⁻²), the G@ZIF film attains a maximum temperature of 120 °C in an open environment with a 98% solar-to-thermal conversion efficiency. Importantly, the porous ZIF layer allows small molecules/media to enter and access the embedded hot graphene surface for targeted heat transfer in practical applications. As a proof-of-concept, the G@ZIF-based steam generator realizes 96% energy conversion from light to vapor with near-perfect desalination and water purification efficiencies (>99.9%). This design is generic and can be extended to other photothermal systems for advanced solar-thermal applications, including catalysis, water treatments, sterilization, and mechanical actuation.     

Ni-based Plasmonic/Magnetic Nanostructures as Efficient Light Absorbers for Steam Generation

Solar steam generation technologies have gained increasing attention due to their great potential for clean water generation with low energy consumption. The rational design of a light absorber that can maximize solar energy utilization is therefore of great importance. Here, the synthesis of Ni@C@SiO₂ core–shell nanoparticles as promising light absorbers for steam generation by taking advantage of the plasmonic excitation of Ni nanoparticles, the broadband absorption of carbon, and the protective function and hydrophilic property of silica is reported. The nanoparticle-based evaporator shows an excellent photothermal efficiency of 91.2%, with an evaporation rate of 1.67 kg m⁻² h⁻¹. The performance can be further enhanced by incorporating the nanoparticles into a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel to make a composite film. In addition, utilizing the magnetic property of the core–shell particles allows the creation of surface texture in the film by applying an external magnetic field, which helps increase surface roughness and further boost the evaporation rate to as high as 2.25 kg m⁻² h⁻¹.     

Janus Nano-Micro Structure-Enabled Coupling of Photothermal Conversion,Heat Localization and Water Supply for High-Efficiency Solar-Driven Interfacial Evaporation

Photothermal conversion, heat localization and water supply are the keys to achieving efficient solar-driven interfacial evaporation. However, effective coupling between the three aspects at the air/liquid interface remains challenging. Herein, Au@Ag-Pd trimetallic nanostructure/polystyrene (PS) microsphere Janus structures are designed as the solar absorber and thermal insulator. The Janus structures deposited on a water supply layer act as a 2D interfacial solar evaporator. The PS microsphere localizes heat at micrometer scale and enhances plasmonic absorption of the Au@Ag-Pd nanocrystals supported on the microsphere. Meanwhile, the Janus structures divide the surface of water supply layer into multiple regions with sub-micrometer depths, lowering the evaporation enthalpy. Owing to the synergic effects of these components, the evaporator realizes a solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency of 99.1% and an evaporation rate of 3.04 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ in pure water under 1 sun illumination. The efficient solar-driven evaporation can last for over 40 h. Furthermore, the solar evaporator shows high-performance seawater desalination with salt removal ratios of near 100%. This study brings new insights for controlling evaporation thermodynamics and kinetics. The Janus nano-micro structure design can be extended to other systems for various solar-thermal applications.     

Highly Salt-Resistant 3D Hydrogel Evaporator for Continuous Solar Desalination via Localized Crystallization

The emerging solar desalination by interfacial evaporation shows great potential for alleviating the global freshwater crisis. However, salt deposition on the whole evaporation surface during steam generation leads to a deterioration in the evaporation rate and long-term stability. Herein, it is demonstrated that a hydrogel-based 3D structure can serve as an efficient and stable solar evaporator by salt localized crystallization for high-salinity brine desalination. Under the function of micron-grade brine transport management and edge-preferential crystallization promoted by this novel design, this 3D hydrogel evaporator exhibits a superior salt-resistant property without salt deposition on the photothermal surface even in 20 wt% brine for continuous 24-h illumination. Moreover, by virtue of the synergistic effect of the promising 3D structure and excellent water transport of hydrogel, the proposed evaporator possesses an excellent evaporation performance achieving 2.07 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ on average in a high-salinity brine (from 10 to 25 wt% NaCl) under 1 sun irradiation, among the best values reported in the literature. With stable and efficient evaporation performance out of high-salinity brine, this design holds great potential for its applications in sustainable solar desalination.     

2D MoN1.2-rGO Stacked Heterostructures Enabled Water State Modification for Highly Efficient Interfacial Solar Evaporation

Improving interfacial solar evaporation performance is crucial for the practical application of this technology in solar-driven seawater desalination. Lowering evaporation enthalpy is one of the most promising and effective strategies to significantly improve solar evaporation rate. In this study, a new pathway to lower vaporization enthalpy by introducing heterogeneous interactions between hydrophilic hybrid materials and water molecules is developed. 2D MoN_1.2 nanosheets are synthesized and integrated with rGO nanosheets to form stacked MoN_1.2-rGO heterostructures with massive junction interfaces for interfacial solar evaporation. Molecular dynamics simulation confirms that atomic thick 2D MoN_1.2 and rGO in the MoN_1.2-rGO heterostructures simultaneously interact with water molecules, while the interactions are remarkably different. These heterogeneous interactions cause an imbalanced water state, which easily breaks the hydrogen bonds between water molecules, leading to dramatically lowered vaporization enthalpy and improved solar evaporation rate (2.6 kg m⁻² h⁻¹). This study provides a promising strategy for designing 2D-2D heterostructures to regulate evaporation enthalpy to improve solar evaporate rate for clean water production.     

A Bionic-Gill 3D Hydrogel Evaporator with Multidirectional Crossflow Salt Mitigation and Aquaculture Applications

In recent years, interfacial solar-driven steam generation has gained huge attention as a sustainable and energy-efficient technology. However, salt scaling on and inside the evaporator structure induced by insufficient ion distribution control will lower the evaporation performance and hinder the stability and durability of evaporators. Herein, inspired by the highly efficient salt-expelling property of the gill filaments of large yellow croaker, a bionic-gill 3D hydrogel evaporator is proposed with fabulous multidirectional ion migration controllability. A 3D structure composed of arrayed beaded hollow columns with beaded hollow holes inspired by gill filaments ensuring longitudinal ion backflow and the peristome-mimetic arrayed grooves of microcavities ensuring lateral ion advection is designed and constructed to achieve fabulous multidirectional crossflow salt ion migration, which ensures high evaporation performance for pure water (an evaporation rate of 2.53 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ with an energy efficiency of 99.3%) as well as for high salinity brine (2.11 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ for 25.0 wt.% NaCl solution), with no salt crystallizing after long-term use. Furthermore, the 3D hydrogel evaporator has excellent chemical stability, mechanical properties, folding-irrelevant evaporation performance, and portability so that it can be used for the preliminary desalination of breeding wastewater through the proposed self-circulation koi aquaculture system.     

Phase-Separated Polyzwitterionic Hydrogels with Tunable Sponge-Like Structures for Stable Solar Steam Generation

Solar steam generation (SSG) through hydrogel-based evaporators has shown great promise for freshwater production. However, developing hydrogel-based evaporators with stable SSG performance in high-salinity brines remains challenging. Herein, phase-separated polyzwitterionic hydrogel-based evaporators are presented with sponge-like structures comprising interconnected pores for stable SSG performance, which are fabricated by photopolymerization of sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) in water-dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) mixed solvents. It is shown that driven by competitive adsorption, the structures of the resulting poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (PSBMA) hydrogels can be readily tuned by the volume ratio of DMSO to achieve phase separation. The optimized phase-separated PSBMA hydrogels, combining the unique anti-polyelectrolyte effects of polyzwitterionic hydrogels, demonstrate a rapid water transport capability in brines. After introducing photothermal polypyrrole particles on the surface of the phase-separated PSBMA hydrogel evaporators, a stable water evaporation rate of ≈2.024 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ and high solar-to-vapor efficiency of ≈97.5% in a 3.5 wt.% brine are obtained under simulated solar light irradiation (1.0 kW m⁻²). Surprisingly, the evaporation rates remain stable even under high-intensity solar irradiation (2.0 kW m⁻²). It is anticipated that the polyzwitterionic hydrogel evaporators with sponge-like porous structures will contribute to developing SSG technology for high-salinity seawater applications.     

Bioinspired Nanofibrous Aerogel with Vertically Aligned Channels for Efficient Water Purification and Salt-Rejecting Solar Desalination

Solar steam generation has become one of the most promising strategies to relieve the freshwater crisis. Whereas, the construction of a solar-thermal water evaporation structure that can operate continuously under sunlight to generate clean water with high efficiency, good stability, and high salt-rejecting capability is quite crucial but challengeable. Enlightened by the water transport and transpiration process in trees, an advanced nanofibrous aerogel evaporator is fabricated with multifunctional capabilities through decoration of functional component onto an aerogel skeleton. The rational integration of hierarchical structure and functional constituents, results in outstanding solar-vapor conversion efficiency of 96.1% and a fast evaporation rate about 2.33 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ under 1 sun. Additionally, the evaporator exhibits remarkably outdoor evaporation and highly effective salt-resistant performances. Significantly, the evaporator can monitor salt precipitation in its inner pores in real time. This study demonstrates an eco-friendly and economic solution for sustainable clean water production using nanofiber aerogel-based evaporators.     

Bioinspired Fractal Design of Waste Biomass-Derived Solar–Thermal Materials for Highly Efficient Solar Evaporation

Solar evaporation is considered a promising technology to address the issue of fresh water scarcity. Although many efforts have been directed towards increasing the solar–thermal conversion efficiency, there remain challenges to develop efficient and cost-effective solar–thermal materials from readily available raw materials. Furthermore, further structural modification of the original biomass structure, particularly at multiple length scales, are seldom reported, which may further improve the solar–thermal performance of these material systems. Herein, a novel low-cost system is developed based on a common bio-waste, pomelo peels (PPs), through a bioinspired fractal structural design strategy, fractal carbonized pomelo peels (FCPP). This FCPP system shows an extremely high solar spectrum absorption of ≈98%, and marvelous evaporation rate of 1.95 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ with a solar–thermal efficiency of 92.4%. In addition, the mechanisms of the evaporation enhancement by fractal structural design are identified by numerical and experimental methods. Moreover, using FCPP in solar desalination shows great superiority in terms of cost and its potential in sewage treatment is also studied. The present work is an insightful attempt on providing a novel proposal to develop bio-waste-derived solar–thermal materials and construct biomimetic structures for efficient solar evaporation and applications.     

A Lotus-Petiole-Inspired Hierarchical Design with Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic Management for Enhanced Solar Water Purification

Solar-driven vapor generation offers an affordable and sustainable approach to solve global freshwater scarcity. Creating interfacial solar evaporators capable of increasing water production rates matching human water requirements is highly desirable but challenging due to the slow water transportation dynamics and unavoidable oil-fouling. Herein, a bio-inspired lotus-petiole-mimetic microstructured graphene/poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) solar evaporator with integrated hydrophilic and hydrophobic microregions is developed. Through accurate control of the supramolecular interactions, the optimized solar evaporator incorporating unique structural features and wettability shows high light harvesting, enhanced water activation, and reduced energy demand for water vaporization, enabling a groundbreaking comprehensive performance along evaporation rate up to 3.4 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ and energy conversion efficiency of ≈93% under one sun irradiation (1 kW m⁻²). Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the abundant hydrogen bonding sites of the polymeric networks can thermodynamically modulate the escape behavior of water molecules. Notably, neither decrease in evaporation rate nor fouling on solar evaporators is observed during the prolonged purification process toward nano/submicrometer emulsions, oily brines, actual seawater, and domestic wastewater. This study provides distinctive insights into water evaporation behaviors at a molecular level and pioneers a rational strategy to design high-yield freshwater-generation systems for wastewater containing complex contaminants.     

Nature-Inspired Structure-Engineered TiN/TiO2 Nanotubes Array Toward Solar Desalination Synergy with Photothermal-Enhanced Degradation and Thermoelectric Generation

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation systems are considered as promising technology to alleviate the water scarcity crisis, yet lack of innovative evaporators obstructs further improvement of energy utilization efficiency. Herein, inspired by mangrove, the structure-engineered design is utilized to synthesis multi-level reflection TiN/TiO₂@carbon cloth (CC) nanotubes array. The hollowed TiO₂ nanorods can promote expeditious water transport, while the TiN/TiO₂ array can act as localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-enhanced multi-level reflection structure for solar energy harvesting. The enhanced light absorption capability of the bionic nanostructure is confirmed by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. Therefore, the TiN/TiO₂@CC-3 exhibits high evaporation rate of 2.02 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ under 1 solar illumination, which is comparable or better than most of fabric-based evaporators. When applied in wide acid–base (pH 1–13) and salinity range (8–100 ‰) over 15 days, the TiN/TiO₂@CC-3 displays outstanding durability. Furthermore, to expand application scope of the elaborate nanostructure, photothermal-enhanced photocatalysis and thermoelectricity generation applications are evaluated, while these new functionalities are integrated into solar-driven desalination system. The outdoor device exhibits daily water yield of 10.89 kg m⁻², synergy with maximum 200.7 mV output voltage and high dye degradation efficiency, demonstrating flexible applications in multi-functional interfacial evaporation systems according to various requirements.     

A Diode-like Scalable Asymmetric Solar Evaporator with Ultra-high Salt Resistance

Passive solar-driven interfacial evaporation is an environmental-friendly approach for seawater desalination. However, non-volatile salts usually precipitate on the evaporator surface during evaporation, significantly reducing the evaporation rate and blocking the evaporator. Although several strategies have been proposed for this issue, they are usually only effective under low salinity conditions and natural solar irradiation. In this study, a scalable solar evaporator is proposed, which is expediently fabricated by carbonizing the commercially available coconut fiber cloth, through designing and optimizing an asymmetric bi-layer structure with a trapezoidal evaporation surface and a wide leg-strengthened water supply pathway. Both experimental and simulation results indicate that the evaporator presents ultra-high salt tolerance, which keeps running steadily for consecutive 14 days under the high salinity of 14 wt% NaCl and high irradiation of 4 suns. This excellent salt resistance arises from a diode-like ion migration introduced by its asymmetric structure. Meanwhile, a remarkable evaporation rate of 7.28 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ is also achieved under the harsh condition, resulting from the high solar absorbance and the reduced evaporation enthalpy of the evaporator. Such an evaporator is confirmed as a simple, low-cost, scalable, efficient, and long-term stable device for producing freshwater under harsh desalination conditions.     

Mutual Reinforcement of Evaporation and Catalysis for Efficient Freshwater–Salt–Chemical Production

The development of mutually reinforcing solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) and integrated functional materials/systems to achieve efficient production of freshwater and energy/matters simultaneously under extremely high solar utilization is in high demand. Herein, an integrated SDIE reaction system (reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-palladium (Pd) catalytic evaporator, rGO-Pd) is first reported, where SDIE and the integrated catalytic reaction are mutually reinforced. The apparent utilization of solar to thermal energy by the integrated SDIE reaction system is a combination of evaporative utilization and catalytic utilization. The reaction heat released by the rGO-Pd catalytic evaporator enhances its anti-salt water production performance to a record of 12.7 L m⁻² h⁻¹, surpassing the reported performance of other integrated SDIE reaction systems. In the rGO-Pd catalytic evaporator, the synergetic effect of photothermal and rapid mass transfer significantly increases the catalytic activity (turnover frequency) of Pd catalysts up to a record 125.07 min⁻¹, which is about 3.75 times of the condition without light. This integrated SDIE reaction system can effectively and simultaneously produce freshwater, salt, and catalyzed chemicals after evaporating water to dryness. This study paves the way for SDIE's high-performance applications in future integrated water, energy, and environmental systems.     

Stable,Cost-Effective TiN-Based Plasmonic Nanocomposites with over 99% Solar Steam Generation Efficiency

Plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs), such as Au, Ag, and Cu, are considered as promising photothermal materials and attract extensive attention for freshwater production by solar steam generation. However, high cost, narrow absorption range and/or poor stability greatly limit their practical applications. Herein, a high-efficiency solar energy conversion material consisting of low-cost non-metal, extremely thermally-stable plasmonic TiN NPs and hydrophilic semi-reduced graphene oxide (semi-rGO), with broadband solar absorption capability, by a fast in situ microwave reduction method is prepared. The 2D semi-rGO serves as a support for the loading of plasmonic NPs, and meanwhile accelerates the transport and evaporation of water due to its hydrophilicity. Then, decoration of plasmonic TiN NPs further enhances the solar photon absorption and hydrophilicity while suppressing the heat loss, thanks to the layered structure of TiN/semi-rGO, improving overall solar energy utilization. Owing to the enhanced absorption and unique layered nanostructure with strong interfacial interaction, the optimal sample of TiN/semi-rGO-25% absorber achieves a high and stable water evaporation rate of ≈1.76 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ with an energy efficiency as high as 99.1% under 1 sun illumination. Furthermore, this plasmonic TiN/semi-rGO absorber is capable of producing high-quality freshwater from sustainable seawater desalination and wastewater purification processes.     

A Floating Integrated Solar Micro-Evaporator for Self-Cleaning Desalination and Organic Degradation

Safe and clean freshwater harvesting from (organic-containing) saline or wastewater holds great potential for mitigating water scarcity and pollution, but remains challenging. Herein, a floating photothermal/catalytic-integrated interfacial micro-evaporator (g-C₃N₄@PANI/PS) is reported as a proof-of-concept multifunctional scavenger evaporator system (MSES) to achieve both solar-driven complete desalination and organic degradation. The spherical porous lightweight polystyrene core, incorporated with a black surface functional layer (g-C₃N₄@PANI), enables the hybrid micro-evaporator to naturally float and thereby collectively self-assemble under surface tension for interfacial evaporation, which achieves preeminent self-cleaning for complete salt/solute separation and efficient organic photodegradation under rotation. Remarkably, the floating micro-evaporator achieves a high solar-vapor conversion efficiency of ≈90% with high interfacial energy localization and provides abundant active photocatalytic sites on the interface, which is further enhanced by interfacial photothermal cooperation. High photo-driven degradation efficiencies of 99% for nonvolatile organic compounds (non-VOC) bisphenol A and 95% for VOC phenol in wastewater are achieved. An outdoor comprehensive solar water treatment test toward organic-containing high-salinity sewage verifies the feasibility of MSES for sustainable freshwater harvesting (1.3 kg m⁻² h⁻¹), downstream salt recovery, and organic degradation. This strategy may inspire an integrated solution of water scarcity, clean energy, and environmental pollution toward carbon neutrality.     

An Easy-to-Fabricate 2.5D Evaporator for Efficient Solar Desalination

Solar-driven steam generation, whereby solar energy is harvested to purify water directly, is emerging as a promising approach to mitigate the worldwide water crisis. The scalable application of conventional 3D evaporators is hindered by their complex spatial geometries. A 2.5D structure is a spatial extension of a 2D structure with an addition of a third vertical dimension, achieving both the feasibility of 2D structure and the performance of 3D structure simultaneously. Here, an interconnected open-pore 2.5D Cu/CuO foam-based photothermal evaporator capable of achieving a high evaporation rate of 4.1 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ under one sun illumination by exposing one end of the planar structure to air is demonstrated. The micro-sized open-pore structure of Cu/CuO foam allows it to trap incident sunlight, and the densely distributed blade-like CuO nanostructures effectively scatter sunlight inside pores simultaneously. The inherent hydrophilicity of CuO and capillarity forces from the porous structure of Cu foam continuously supply sufficient water. Moreover, the doubled working sides of Cu/CuO foam enlarge the exposure area enabling efficient vapor diffusion. The feasible fabrication process and the combined structural features of Cu/CuO foam offer new insight into the future development of solar-driven evaporators in large-scale applications with practical durability.     

Solar-Driven Interfacial Evaporation Accelerated Electrocatalytic Water Splitting on 2D Perovskite Oxide/MXene Heterostructure

The rational design of economic and high-performance electrocatalytic water-splitting systems is of great significance for energy and environmental sustainability. Developing a sustainable energy conversion-assisted electrocatalytic process provides a promising novel approach to effectively boost its performance. Herein, a self-sustained water-splitting system originated from the heterostructure of perovskite oxide with 2D Ti₃C₂T_x MXene on Ni foam (La_1-xSr_xCoO₃/Ti₃C₂T_x MXene/Ni) that shows high activity for solar-powered water evaporation and simultaneous electrocatalytic water splitting is presented. The all-in-one interfacial electrocatalyst exhibits highly improved oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance with a low overpotential of 279 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² and a small Tafel slope of 74.3 mV dec⁻¹, superior to previously reported perovskite oxide-based electrocatalysts. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the integration of La_0.9Sr_0.1CoO₃ with Ti₃C₂T_x MXene can lower the energy barrier for the electron transfer and decrease the OER overpotential, while COMSOL simulations unveil that interfacial solar evaporation could induce OH⁻ enrichment near the catalyst surfaces and enhance the convection flow above the catalysts to remove the generated gas, remarkably accelerating the kinetics of electrocatalytic water splitting.