Metal-phenolic network coated cellulose foams for solar-driven clean water production

•Fe3+/TA@ CF has been fabricated for solar steam generation.•The robust photothermal Fe3+/TA@ CF is cost-effective and antifouling.•Oil-polluted seawater can be purified by Fe3+/TA@ CF through solar evaporation. Solar-driven water steam generation is a promising strategy for seawater desalination and wastewater purification. However, oil contaminants commonly exist in real water resources, which drives us to design and fabricate photothermal materials with high efficient water steam generation and outstanding anti-oil-fouling ability. Herein, we developed a metal-phenolic network-coated cellulose foam (Fe3+/TA@CF), which exhibits not only superb hydrophilicity and underwater lipophobicity, but also achieves high water evaporation rate of ∼1.3 kg m−2 h-1 even in oil-polluted seawater under one sun illumination. In addition, Fe3+/TA@CF is demonstrated to be both anti-oil-fouling and anti-salt-fouling, which benefits to long-term evaporation in practical utilizations. Metal ions and oil contaminants in the condensed water vapor are almost eliminated after purification. We believe that this low-cost, biodegradable Fe3+/TA@CF paves a way for rationally designing and fabricating high-performance evaporator for oil contaminated water purification.