During solar evaporation, it has been found that besides harvesting light energy, efficient thermal energy management via the design of the photothermal evaporator’s structure and configuration enhances solar evaporation performance [1, 2]. By employing strategic energy management, it is possible to decrease heat losses (via conduction, convection and radiation) in the evaporation system, while simultaneously capturing environment energy from the ambient, thereby increasing the evaporation rate [3–5]. Over recent years, numerous effective strategies for energy management have been proposed.