ABSTRACT This work developed a dimpled TiO 2 ceramic with abundant oxygen vacancies for efficient solar‐driven interfacial evaporation. Multiscale porous structures and surface dimple morphologies were constructed on the TiO 2 ceramic via titanium powder coating, followed by sequential vacuum heat treatment and hydrothermal processing, with oxygen vacancies further enhancing the optical absorption and photothermal conversion capabilities. Systematic experiments revealed that the optimized sample achieved a solar‐spectrum absorption of 93.78%, a photothermal conversion efficiency of 73.3%, an evaporation rate of 1.63 kg·m −2 ·h −1 , and a reduced evaporation enthalpy of 1.81 MJ·kg − 1 , yielding an overall solar‐to‐steam efficiency of approximately 75%. The study demonstrates that the dimple architecture synergistically promotes light harvesting, facilitates heat localization, and creates low‐enthalpy evaporation pathways via capillary effects, thereby offering a promising strategy for developing high‐efficiency, durable solar desalination materials.
Chen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.