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Solar-thermal evaporation is a promising technology for energy-efficient desalination, but salt accumulation on solar absorbers and system longevity are the major challenges that hinder its widespread application. In this study, we present a sustainable Janus wood evaporator that overcomes these challenges and achieves a record-high evaporation efficiencies in hypersaline water, one of the most difficult water sources to treat via desalination. The Janus wood evaporator has asymmetric surface wettability, where the top layer acts as a hydrophobic solar absorber with water blockage and salt resistance, while the bottom hydrophilic wood layer allows for rapid water replenishment and superior thermal insulation. An evaporation efficiency of 82.0% is achieved for 20% NaCl solution under 1 sun, and persistent salt-resistance is observed during a 10-cycle long-term test. To ensure the environmental impact of the Janus wood evaporator, for the first time, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to compare this Janus wood evaporator with the emerging Janus evaporators, indicating a functional and more sustainable opportunity for off-grid desalination and humanitarian efforts. 

Bimetallics are emerging as important materials that often exhibit distinct chemical properties from monometallics. However, there is limited access to homogeneously alloyed bimetallics because of the thermodynamic immiscibility of the constituent elements. Overcoming the inherent immiscibility in bimetallic systems would create a bimetallic library with unique properties. Here, we present a nonequilibrium synthesis strategy to address the immiscibility challenge in bimetallics. As a proof of concept, we synthesize a broad range of homogeneously alloyed Cu-based bimetallic nanoparticles regardless of the thermodynamic immiscibility. The nonequilibrated bimetallic nanoparticles are further investigated as electrocatalysts for carbon monoxide reduction at commercially relevant current densities (>100 mA cm −2 ), in which Cu 0.9 Ni 0.1 shows the highest multicarbon product Faradaic efficiency of ~76% with a current density of ~93 mA cm −2 . The ability to overcome thermodynamic immiscibility in multimetallic synthesis offers freedom to design and synthesize new functional nanomaterials with desired chemical compositions and catalytic properties. 

Ceramics are an important class of materials with widespread applications because of their high thermal, mechanical, and chemical stability. Computational predictions based on first principles methods can be a valuable tool in accelerating materials discovery to develop improved ceramics. It is essential to experimentally confirm the material properties of such predictions. However, materials screening rates are limited by the long processing times and the poor compositional control from volatile element loss in conventional ceramic sintering techniques. To overcome these limitations, we developed an ultrafast high-temperature sintering (UHS) process for the fabrication of ceramic materials by radiative heating under an inert atmosphere. We provide several examples of the UHS process to demonstrate its potential utility and applications, including advancements in solid-state electrolytes, multicomponent structures, and high-throughput materials screening. 

Multimetallic nanoclusters (MMNCs) offer unique and tailorable surface chemistries that hold great potential for numerous catalytic applications. The efficient exploration of this vast chemical space necessitates an accelerated discovery pipeline that supersedes traditional “trial-and-error” experimentation while guaranteeing uniform microstructures despite compositional complexity. Herein, we report the high-throughput synthesis of an extensive series of ultrafine and homogeneous alloy MMNCs, achieved by 1) a flexible compositional design by formulation in the precursor solution phase and 2) the ultrafast synthesis of alloy MMNCs using thermal shock heating (i.e., ∼1,650 K, ∼500 ms). This approach is remarkably facile and easily accessible compared to conventional vapor-phase deposition, and the particle size and structural uniformity enable comparative studies across compositionally different MMNCs. Rapid electrochemical screening is demonstrated by using a scanning droplet cell, enabling us to discover two promising electrocatalysts, which we subsequently validated using a rotating disk setup. This demonstrated high-throughput material discovery pipeline presents a paradigm for facile and accelerated exploration of MMNCs for a broad range of applications.