Solar-driven evaporation technology is often used in areas with limited access to clean water, as it provides a low-cost and sustainable method of water purification. Avoiding salt accumulation is still a substantial challenge for continuous desalination. Here, an efficient solar-driven water harvester that consists of strontium-cobaltite-based perovskite (SrCoO₃) anchored on nickel foam (SrCoO₃@NF) is reported. Synced waterways and thermal insulation are provided by a superhydrophilic polyurethane substrate combined with a photothermal layer. The structural photothermal properties of SrCoO₃ perovskite have been extensively investigated through state-of-the-art experimental investigations. Multiple incident rays are induced inside the diffuse surface, permitting wideband solar absorption (91%) and heat localization (42.01 °C @ 1 sun). Under 1 kW m⁻² solar intensity, the integrated SrCoO₃@NF solar evaporator has an outstanding evaporation rate (1.45 kg/m² h) and solar-to-vapor conversion efficiency (86.45% excluding heat losses). In addition, long-term evaporation measurements demonstrate small variance under sea water, illustrating the system’s working capacity for salt rejection (1.3 g NaCl/210 min), which is excellent for an efficient solar-driven evaporation application compared to other carbon-based solar evaporators. According to the findings of this research, this system offers significant potential for producing fresh water devoid of salt accumulation for use in industrial applications.

Semiconductor ionic electrolytes, especially heterostructure composites, have a significant role in enhancing oxide ion conductivity and peak power density (PPD) because of their interfacial contact. In this work, the fluorite structure CeO₂ and spinel-based CoAl₂O₄ samples, as a heterostructure composite electrolyte, are successfully fabricated. The p-type CoAl₂O₄ and n-type CeO₂ heterostructure (CeO₂-CoAl₂O₄) used as an electrolyte exhibits a cell performance of 758 mW/cm² under fuel cell H₂/air conditions at 550 °C, which is quite higher than the pure CoAl₂O₄ and CeO₂ fuel cell devices. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) verified the heterostructure formation including the morphological analysis of the prepared heterostructure composite. The heterostructure-based CeO₂-CoAl₂O₄ composite achieved a higher ionic conductivity of 0.13 S/cm at 550 °C temperature, which means that the constructed device successfully works as an electrolyte by suppressing electronic conductivity. Meanwhile, the obtained results demonstrate the semiconductor ionic heterostructure effect by adjusting the appropriate composition to build heterostructure of the n-type (CeO₂) and p-type (CoAl₂O₄) components and built-in electric field. So, this work exhibits that the constructed device can be effective for energy conversion and storage devices.