Photothermal nanostructures for solar-driven desalination of saline water

The utilization of solar energy as the cleanest and most abundant source of energy available, as an environmentally friendly solution, is proposed to overcome the global problem of lack of potable water. It is common to use photothermal materials to harvest and store solar energy in steam production systems. These materials are classified into three main groups, including carbon-based materials, plasmonic metals, and semiconductors. Among them, the use of carbon nanomaterials has been greatly welcomed by researchers. this attention is due to its appropriate features such as high absorption level, abundance, reasonable price, and availability in nature. In this article, by introducing solar steam production systems (SSG), the characteristics and mechanism of light absorption in photothermal materials are discussed. This paper is focusing on the carbon nanomaterials, especially graphene as an attractive two-dimensional nanostructure with unique optical properties. In the following, some of the research conducted in this field are briefly reviewed.