Blacking any Material Surface by Amyloid-Fortified Carbon Coating Toward High-Performance Large-Scale Solar Steam Generation System

Enhancing the interfacial adhesion between carbon-based coatings and substrates through a simple method remains a challenge, mainly due to the intrinsic chemical inertness of carbon materials. Herein, a carbon nanosphere-based coating utilizing an amyloid-like protein aggregation strategy is developed, involving only the reaction of protein, reductant, and carbon nanospheres in an aqueous solution at room temperature. The resultant coating, enriched in amyloid-like protein structures, features both robust interfacial adhesion and high light absorption (≈98.5%) covering the entire UV/Vis to NIR regions. Adhesion energy between the coating and the glass exceeds 5436 J m^-2, which is at least five times higher than those polymer-reinforced carbon-based coatings. Combining the strong adhesion and excellent photothermal conversion performance of this coating, a solar steam generation system is constructed with a water treatment capacity of 13.01 kg m^-2 d^-1, which is sufficient to provide daily supply for tens of people. Importantly, the photothermal conversion unit can be repeatedly cleaned and rolled up for storage, which is beneficial for the construction of portable devices. This work provides a facile and valuable method for preparing carbon-based coatings with strong interfacial adhesion, exhibiting great promise in energy conversion and storage, flexible wearable sensors, photothermal therapy, and so on.