Abstract
Recovering nitrate from surface water can help address interconnected environmental, resource, and energy challenges. In response, we have developed a bioinspired photothermal evaporation platform (BPEP) for the efficient co-recovery of low-concentration nitrate and freshwater. Through the evaporation-induced localized multi-field (flowing, concentration, temperature) enhancement effect, the BPEP achieves a high nitrate recovery capacity of 8510 g m-2 under 1 sun illumination, approximately 6.7 times higher than under dark conditions. The flowing field is identified as the dominant contributor, accounting for nearly 80% of the total enhancement. In outdoor testing, BPEP demonstrates a high nitrate recovery of around 25.9 mg m-2, with a daily water collection rate of about 8.46 kg m-2. The extracted nitrate by BPEP can be further converted into nitrogen fertilizer via catalytic processes, thereby promoting plant growth. Overall, BPEP offers an integrated strategy to recover nitrate and freshwater, addressing pressing issues in global sustainable development.
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Acknowledgments
This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52206216, 52076217) and the High-Performance Computing Center of Central South University. Swee Ching TAN would like to acknowledge financial support by the Singapore Ministry of Education (A-8002144-00-00) for this work.
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These authors contributed equally: Zhen Yu, Lei Shi. Z.Y., L.S., and S.C.T. conceived and designed the project. Z.Y., R.N., and H.H. conducted the experiments. Z.S., J.C., and T.Z. contributed to the theoretical analysis and theoretical calculations. Z.Y. and L.S. organized the data and wrote the manuscript. S.C.T. revised and polished the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Yu, Z., Shi, L., Ning, R. et al. Interfacial evaporation-induced localized multi-field coupling enables efficient co-recovery of freshwater and nitrates. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68365-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68365-9
