Solar desalination driven by solar radiation as heat source is freely available, however, hindered by low efficiency. Herein, we first design and synthesize black titania with a unique nanocage structure simultaneously with light trapping effect to enhance light harvesting, well-crystallized interconnected nanograins to accelerate the heat transfer from titania to water and with opening mesopores (4-10 nm) to facilitate the permeation of water vapor. Furthermore, the coated self-floating black titania nanocages film localizes the temperature increase at the water air interface rather than uniformly heating the bulk of the water, which ultimately results in a solar-thermal conversion efficiency as high as 70.9% under a simulated solar light with an intensity of 1 kW m(-2) (1 sun). This finding should inspire new black materials with rationally designed structure for superior solar desalination performance.