What is Peking TTB-pPA COF Solar Evaporator?

Many places lack drinking water, and seawater is too salty to drink. A solar still fixes this by using the Sun's heat to evaporate water, leaving salts behind, then cooling the vapour back into pure water. The hard part is making the evaporation fast, and this work uses covalent organic frameworks (COFs), porous crystalline polymers, as a layer that turns sunlight into heat. The TTB-pPA version contains chlorine atoms and absorbs light with wavelengths from 200 to 1,500 nanometres, which covers ultraviolet, visible and infrared light. The authors report an evaporation rate of 7.62 kg per square metre per hour in a device, published in Nature Water in 2026.

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