Water is essential to life and progress. The World Health Organization reports that 3.2 billion people worldwide face water scarcity, while >420 billion m3 of wastewater is released into rivers, lakes, and oceans annually, contaminating 5.5 trillion m3 of freshwater. Therefore, based on the concept of seawater desalination, the current emerging solar water purification technology primarily employs clean renewable solar as the primary energy input channel and uses interfacial photothermal conversion materials to separate water and impurities via evaporation, which has the benefits of low energy loss and excellent efficiency when compared with other water purification technologies. Hybrid Interfacial Solar Evaporation presents a promising solution to address the pressing challenges of interfacial evaporation technology e.g. fundamental, and operational issues. By leveraging the principles of interfacial engineering, this technology optimizes the conversion of solar radiation into thermal energy for water evaporation, waste heat recovery into thermoelectricity, and photothermal-induced water splitting, as illustrated in Figure 1. From fundamental studies elucidating the underlying mechanisms to scalable prototypes tailored for real-world implementation, this holistic approach offers a pathway toward sustainable water desalination, energy generation, and fuel production2-5. As we navigate toward a more sustainable future, hybrid interfacial solar evaporation stands as a beacon of hope, bridging the gap between scientific inquiry and tangible solutions to global challenges.

Keywords: Solar energy; Hybrid; Interfacial evaporation; Water-fuel-energy-crisis

References:
1.    Irshad, Muhammad Sultan, et al. "Advances of 2D‐Enabled Photothermal Materials in Hybrid Solar‐Driven Interfacial Evaporation Systems toward Water‐Fuel‐Energy Crisis." Advanced Functional Materials 33.51 (2023): 2304936.
2.    Arshad, N., Irshad, M.S. et al. Exploring perovskite oxide for advancing salt-resistant photothermal membranes and reliable thermoelectric generators. Chem. Eng. J. 475, 146200 (2023).
 

Rizwan Ur Rehman Sagar completed his PhD (2010–2015) degree in Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He has been served as post-doctorate fellow (2016-2018) in College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University. During that period, he was awarded research funding from Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China. In addition, he has been selected as an excellent postdoc (2018-2020) from Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, China and and obtain a prestigious research funding from the National Natural Science Foundation as PI. He also served Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, as Associate Professor where he got another prestigious award of Foreign Research Expert in China-2022. He is actively engaged in the fabrication of low-dimensional materials high energy density battery research. He has been published more than 80 scientific articles in well-reputed journals and also served Associate Editor in different journals especially Nanoscience-Frontiers in Chemistry. Recently, he is working in the Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University-Geelong Australia. 

Dr Tanveer Hussain is a Senior Lecturer (Associate professor) of Applied Physics in the discipline of Physics & Electronics at University of New England, Australia. He completed his PhD in computational condensed matter physics (computational designs of clean energy storage materials) from Uppsala University, Sweden. His PhD research led to the design of several new classes of nanomaterials for efficient hydrogen storage applications. Dr Tanveer has many years of experience in the field of hydrogen storage, rechargeable batteries, nano sensors, and nano biosensors at prestigious institutions, including Royal Institute of Technology (KTH, Sweden), The University of Queensland (Australia), and The University of Western Australia. He designs novel materials for a diverse range of applications and his current direction of research includes the rational design of functional materials for hydrogen storage and electrodes for rechargeable batteries. Dr Tanveer is an author of more than 180 peer reviewed publications, many in prestigious top-tier journals like Advanced Energy Materials, ACS Energy Letters, Advanced Functional Materials, Angewandte Chemie, Small, and Nano Energy etc. He has collaborated with research teams across the world.

Dr. Muhammad Rizwan is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) – a globally renowned institution of biomedical research and discoveries. Dr Rizwan received Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2017 and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto in 2021 with Dr Molly Shoichet. Rizwan research group is focused on engineering hydrogel-based biomaterials for tissue regeneration. The overarching goal of his research program is to leverage the adaptable nature of hydrogels to modulate cell functions and precisely control the delivery of cells and drugs for in-situ regeneration. Dr. Rizwan is a recipient of the prestigious Singapore International Graduate Award for doctoral research, the University of Toronto Research Excellence Award for postdoctoral research, and multiple NIH awards for current research projects in the lab. His research has been highlighted in leading biomaterial and tissue engineering journals.

Abdullah Riaz studied Master of Science in Physics at University of Rostock with specialization in physics of nanomaterials and clusters. In his Master’s thesis he focused on the synthesis and characterization of bulk nanocrystalline Fe-Ni and amorphous Fe-Ni-Ta-B alloys for a potential applications as sensors and actuators in telecommunication and aeronautical industries.

Mr. Riaz worked as a research assistant in the group of Physics of New Materials at Institute of Physics, University of Rostock. He was involved in the development of 3D active implant prototype. During this time, he synthesized bulk nanostructured ceramics by conventional and Field Assisted Sintering Technique (FAST). He investigated ceramic materials and demonstrated that nanostructured bulk calcium titanate provides piezoelectric properties that resemble to the natural bone and allow faster integration of orthopedic implants into the bone. In January 2020 he received his PhD degree in experimental physics.

Since March 2020, Abdullah Riaz is a research scientist at the chair of microfluidics, University of Rostock. He is leading the research activities focused on sintering technology, the FAST sintering process. Dr. Riaz is also responsible for the development of a rapid tooling process to produce tools for the metal injection molding process by using an additive manufacturing process. He is also an associate scientist of the SFB ELAINE – Electrically Active Implants, which is a DFG collaborative research center that focuses on novel electrically active implants.

Usman Salahuddin is a researcher, an engineer and a dedicated learner. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from NUST. He furthered did his studies through a Fulbright Ph.D. in Material Science at the University of Connecticut, focusing on nanomaterial and renewable energy applications. Throughout his career, he've contributed to various companies, aiming to integrate innovative technologies for a greener world. His passion lies in addressing the global energy challenges and creating practical solutions for a sustainable future, while constantly seeking new opportunities for growth and impact.

Lauren Marbella is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University. Her research group focuses on understanding the relationship between electrochemical performance and interfacial chemistry in devices for energy storage and conversion. Her research relies heavily on the use of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy to evaluate changes in material properties in real time to elucidate the chemical mechanisms underpinning degradation in Li and beyond Li-ion battery systems. Marbella’s research has received numerous awards including the ACS Materials Au Rising Stars in Materials Research Award (2022), Cottrell Scholar Award (2022), the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award (2021), and the Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award for Advanced Energy Storage (Sloan Foundation, 2019).
She received her PhD in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2016, under the direction of Prof. Jill Millstone. In 2017, she was named a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge in the group of Prof. Clare Grey. There, she was also named the Charles and Katharine Darwin Research Fellow, which recognizes the top junior fellow at Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. She joined the chemical engineering faculty at Columbia University in 2018.

Dr. Rahman Shah Zaib Saleem is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at SBASSE, LUMS. As an organic chemist, he employs organic chemistry tools to design innovative drugs and materials. Dr. Rahman teaches spectroscopy, medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, and drug discovery courses to undergraduate and graduate students. He is also a recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence 2021-22.

Professor Jawwad Darr is the son of Pakistani immigrants from the Punjab who came to the UK in the 1960’s to work in Bradford West Yorkshire. Despite an unremarkable early education, he is now one of the UK’s leading industrially facing academics in advanced functional materials/nanomaterials process engineering, with the title of Professor of Materials Chemistry at University College London, UCL (world’s top 20 university). He has published over 200 academic publications and three patents and has been awarded funding valued at over 20 million pounds and has graduated over 45 PhD students (as of 2021). From 2016 to 2021, he was vice dean of enterprise in the Maths and Physical Sciences faculty at UCL in, which he was supporting UCL’s faculty engagement with industry.

He is visiting professor at Comsats University Islamabad (Lahore Campus) since 2008. In 2017, he co-founded the UPSIGN charity (UK-Pakistan Science and Innovation Global Network; www.upsign.org.uk) that works to support, educate and connect British Pakistani and Pakistani academics. In his UPSIGN work, he is involved in public outreach workshops and lectures, training Pakistani academics and students, and developing training and workshops to support underprivileged undergraduate black and minority Asian students in research.

He is a regular speaker at industrial forums and academic events in a wide range of topics. As well as his own latest research, he teaches on topics related to green chemistry, applications of advanced functional materials (including batteries) and at outreach lectures for (virtual/real) schools/universities in the UK and Pakistan.

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