Tunable Self-Sorting of Ternary Macrocycle Cocrystals Enabling High-Efficiency Solar-Driven Interfacial Water Evaporation

Self-sorting not only guides biological systems to generate specific products from multiple possibilities but also serves as a pivotal strategy for the higher-level assembly of supramolecular systems. Herein, we present the synthesis of a novel ternary macrocycle cocrystal (MCC), which is composed of phenanthrene[2]arene (P2), p-benzoquinone (BQ), and tetrachloro-1,4-benzoquinone (TCBQ), achieved through a self-sorting process. Ternary MCCs display superior photothermal conversion capability under 808 nm laser irradiation, rapidly attaining a temperature of 140 °C within a mere 18 s. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that increasing the charge transfer effect in organic cocrystals can significantly improve their photothermal conversion capability and effectively reduce their HOMO–LUMO energy gap. Moreover, upon one sunlight illumination, a cotton cloth loaded with 50 mg of the ternary MCC demonstrates an impressive solar-driven interfacial water evaporation rate of 2.36 kg m–2 h–1, corresponding to an evaporation efficiency of 92.6%. Notably, the water evaporation rate of 10 wt % NaCl water is similar to that of pure water, suggesting that ternary MCCs have strong salt resistance.