Science Advances · 16 October 2026 · From issue 52
Sustainable solar water purification: Exploring the structural advantages of higher plants
A plant-based device turns seawater into fresh water using only sunlight.
Xue Han, Chuxin Lei et al.
A new device turns dirty or salty water into clean water using only sunlight. It is made from thin wood slices coated in black carbon, a spongy plant fiber gel, and upright wheat straws standing on top. In lab tests it produced up to 3.2 kilograms of water vapor per square meter every hour. Outdoors in real sunlight, it made up to 10.9 kilograms of fresh water per square meter each day from seawater.
Amount of fresh water the device produced outdoors from seawater each day.
Outdoor prototype only, no long-term durability data yet.
Integrity screen: passed (3 checks) Checked 20 October 2026. Retraction record: none. DOI resolves at doi.org. Metadata record found (Science Advances). Read the source
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