Leveraging Cross-Cutting Technologies to Unravel Light-Heat-Water Interactions at Solar Evaporation Interfaces: Propelling the Low-Carbon Water-Energy Nexus.

Multifunctional solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) systems have emerged as a critical technology for clean water production. Advances in evaporator design and component optimization have significantly enhanced their performance, enabling highly efficient operation in small-scale applications such as seawater desalination and steam sterilization, even under extreme environmental conditions. Nevertheless, critical mechanisms remain insufficiently resolved: light-to-heat conversion dynamics and interfacial interactions during evaporation, synergistic thermal confinement and management strategies, and water transport/activation mechanisms at solid-liquid-gas interfaces mediated by suspended materials. This review systematically examines unsystematized photothermal-water conversion processes and cross-disciplinary application scenarios through analysis of archetypal evaporator configurations. By adopting an integrated multi-scale analysis framework and leveraging advanced computational modeling techniques, the metrological significance of performance metrics, inherent measurement uncertainties, and fundamental value-translation mechanisms in specialized implementations is elucidated. Concurrently, intrinsic limitations hindering large-scale deployment are identified, providing critical insights into scalability challenges across diverse operational contexts. This approach establishes a comprehensive theoretical foundation for optimizing next-generation SDIE systems while providing data references for cross-disciplinary advancement in the sustainable application of thermophotovoltaic evaporation.