Studies on solar steam evaporation for potential application in desalination have attracted much attention due to its unique advantages of low energy consumption environmental friendliness, etc. However, water molecule transportation in the capillaries of solar steam evaporators to develop a high-efficiency solar evaporation system is critical but often ignored. This work reports high-yield and low-cost natural corn stalks as solar steam generators with ultra-fast water transportation in capillaries, multi-layer self-cleaning of sea salt, large seawater storage capacity, long-term anti-corrosion properties against seawater, low thermal conductivity, and excellent evaporation properties. This solar steam evaporator with the conventional photothermal coating by multi-walled carbon nanotubes and titanium dioxide (Mcnt-TiO₂) exhibits an outstanding evaporation rate of 2.48 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ and evaporation efficiency of 68.2% under solar light. These advantages are significantly attributed to the natural structural features of the stem marrow of corn stalks including scattered vascular bundles with super-hydrophilic properties achieving high-speed water moisture transportation, porous basic tissues with layer by layer bio-filtration, porous cavities realizing multi-stage filtration, transportation and storage of seawater, and low moisture enthalpy and heat loss. Meanwhile, an efficient and low-cost solar desalination device via bundling pluralities of corn stalks is developed to collect freshwater, and the average daily freshwater amount per unit area (4.3–5.8 kg m⁻² on sunny days and 3.0–3.9 kg m⁻² on cloudy days) can meet the daily water needs of more than twenty adults. These findings not only provide the possibility of discovering corn stalks as low-cost, scalable, highly efficient evaporation-based heat transfer devices for future efficient desalination, but also present an innovative inspiration for reducing the greenhouse effect brought by corn stalk burning, which promotes the efficient use of bio-mass straws.

中文翻译：

---

玉米秸秆，Mcnts和TiO ₂的高效太阳能海水淡化蒸发器复合材料：超快速的毛细管水水分输送和多孔生物组织多层过滤†

由于其低能耗，环境友好等独特的优势，有关将太阳能蒸汽蒸发潜在地应用于海水淡化的研究引起了广泛的关注。但是，在太阳能蒸汽蒸发器的毛细管中进行水分子运输以开发高效的太阳能蒸发系统至关重要，但经常被忽略。这项工作报告了作为太阳能蒸汽发生器的高产量，低成本的天然玉米秸秆，具有超快的毛细管内水传输速度，多层的海盐自清洁功能，较大的海水储存能力，长期抗海水腐蚀性能，低导热率和出色的蒸发性能。该太阳能蒸汽蒸发器具有传统的多壁碳纳米管和二氧化钛（Mcnt-TiO ₂）的光热涂层，显示出出色的蒸发速率，为2.48 kg m ^-2 h ^-1在太阳光下蒸发效率为68.2％。这些优势主要归因于玉米秸秆骨髓的自然结构特征，包括具有超亲水特性的分散的维管束，可实现水的快速水分输送，具有多层生物过滤功能的多孔基础组织，可实现多种功能的多孔腔。过滤，运输和储存海水，水分焓和热量损失低。同时，高效率和低成本的太阳能脱盐装置经由集束玉米秸秆的多个显影以收集淡水，并且每单位面积的平均每日淡水量（4.3-5.8公斤米^-2在晴天和3.0-3.9公斤米^{- 2个}在阴天）可以满足二十多位成年人的日常用水需求。这些发现不仅为发现玉米秸秆作为低成本，可扩展，高效的基于蒸发的传热设备提供了可能，以实现未来的高效脱盐，而且为减少玉米秸秆燃烧带来的温室效应提供了创新的灵感，从而促进了玉米秸秆燃烧的发展。有效利用生物质秸秆。