Scientists have developed a solar-powered desalination system that turns seawater into fresh water while removing nearly all of the leftover salt as a solid instead of producing harmful brine. The self-cleaning technology could also recover valuable minerals such as lithium, potentially turning desalination waste into a useful resource.
At the heart of the technology are solar panels made from black metal that has been treated with femtosecond lasers. A femtosecond is an extraordinarily short unit of time, equal to one quadrillionth of a second. Pulses from these ultrafast lasers can precisely alter a material’s surface, creating microscopic structures that dramatically change how it interacts with light and water.
Neat
And it’s very easy to make, you just need to ask Finland to get black metal