Solar steam generation has emerged as a promising and sustainable method of addressing the water shortage issue. Although various materials and structures have been reported, designing a highly efficient steam generation device with excellent salt resistant performance remains a great challenge. For the first time, a polypyrrole (PPy)–wood device has been prepared through a simple “soak and polymerization” process by in situ polymerization of pyrrole monomers into a three-dimensional (3D) porous wood matrix. The PPy particles decorated on the wood matrix can convert incident light into heat while the 3D porous wood matrix can further enhance light absorption based on light harvesting and multiple scattering effects, which allows the PPy–wood light absorption to reach as high as 97.5% in the spectral range from 250 nm to 2500 nm. Owing to the low thermal conductivity of wood, the PPy–wood can localize the converted heat at the surface of the device, enabling efficient steam generation. The hydrophilicity and the numerous aligned microchannels of the PPy–wood ensure constant water supply to the air–water interface. All these merits endow the PPy–wood with a high solar energy conversion efficiency of 83% under 1 Sun, with an evaporation rate of 1.33 kg m⁻² h⁻¹. Moreover, the fabricated PPy–wood also shows good structure stability and cycling stability as well as excellent salt resistant performance. Benefiting from the low-cost of wood and the simple fabrication process, the PPy–wood with the above merits is one of the most suitable candidates for solar desalination.

Carbon dots (CDs) were grown in situ on secondary anodized TiO₂ nanotube arrays (TiO₂ NTAs) via a hydrothermal method.

In this paper, Au and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were successively deposited on fluorine-doped SnO₂ transparent conductive glass (FTO, 1 × 2 cm) via a facile and one-step electrodeposition method to form a clean interface and construct a three-dimensional network structure for the simultaneous detection of nitrite and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). For nitrite detection, 3D Au-rGO/FTO displayed a sensitivity of 419 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻² and a linear range from 0.0299 to 5.74 mM, while for the detection of H₂O₂, the sensitivity was 236 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻² and a range from 0.179 to 10.5 mM. The combined results from scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction measurements (XRD) and electrochemical tests demonstrated that the properties of 3D Au-rGO/FTO were attributabled to the conductive network consisting of rGO and the good dispersion of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) which can provide better electrochemical properties than other metal compounds, such as a larger electroactive surface area, more active sites, and a bigger catalytic rate constant.