> A solution to this problem came from an unlikely source: Chen’s 16-year-old daughter, who at the time was working on a science fair project in which she constructed a makeshift greenhouse from simple materials, including bubble wrap. “She was able to heat it to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, in winter!” Chen says. “It was very effective.”<p>Love it when discoveries are made by accident.
<i>The sponge also converted 20 percent of the incoming sunlight to steam. ... The researchers’ current design builds on a solar-absorbing structure they developed in 2014 ... that was able to boil water to 100 C and convert 85 percent of the incoming sunlight to steam.</i><p>Even if they're a little confused about turning energy into matter, it does make me wonder if it's possible to manufacture something cheap, flexible, and durable enough that you could carry a "solar still" blanket for survival purposes. Just unroll it over some moist sand or vegetation, and it would distill and collect water that you could then drink out of a little tube.
The paper is available on researchgate: <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hadi_Ghasemi10/publication/264091569_Solar_steam_generation_by_heat_localization/links/53e0e5240cf24f90ff60c047.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hadi_Ghasemi10/publicat...</a><p>Original link: www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5449
<i>the researchers found the structure heated water to its boiling temperature of 100 degrees Celsius, even on relatively cool, overcast days.</i><p>It's not surprising that one could get such a result from solar thermal. Heat pipe based solar collectors have been doing this in cloudy English environs for many years. The really impressive part of this solution is its potential extremely low cost.