Solar desalination is a sustainable, low-cost and eco-friendly method for water purification. Current methods for solar evaporation desalination suffer from relatively low efficiencies, complex preparations, high cost, and instability. Here, for the first time, we propose a femtosecond laser structured Ti foam for use in a rapid steam escaping evaporator for solar steam generation. The assembled device has a high water evaporation rate of ∼1.79 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ and a solar steam efficiency of ∼90% under one sun irradiation. The device is constructed from a treated Ti foam, insulation cotton and polyurethane sponge. The treated Ti foam possesses efficient broadband solar absorption (>97%), Janus characteristics (superhydrophilicity/hydrophobicity) for pumping water on the vapor surface, and superaerophobicity for rapid vapor release, all of which facilitate confined water evaporation. The underlying insulation cotton alleviates thermal dissipation. The pre-wetted polyurethane sponge supplies water to the Ti foam, thus avoiding direct contact between the treated foam and bulk water. Promisingly, a home-made system was built to verify the feasibility of generating purified water. The femtosecond direct writing technology provides a rapid approach for efficient desalination using natural sunlight.

Due to the wide use of iron in all kinds of areas, the design and construction of direct, fast, and highly sensitive sensor for Fe³⁺ are highly desirable and important. In the present work, a kind of fluorescent MXene quantum dots (MQDs) was synthesized via an intermittent ultrasound process using N,N-dimethyl formamide as solvent. The prepared MQDs were characterized via a combination of UV–Vis absorption, fluorescence spectra, X-ray photoelectron energy spectra, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Based on the electrostatic-induced aggregation quenching mechanism, the fluorescent MQDs probes exhibited excellent sensing performance for the detection of Fe³⁺, with a sensitivity of 0.6377 mM⁻¹ and the detection limit of 1.4 μM, superior to those reported in studies. The present MQDs-based probes demonstrate the potential promising applications as the sensing device of Fe³⁺.