Scalable super hygroscopic polymer films for sustainable moisture harvesting in arid environments
Abstract
Extracting ubiquitous atmospheric water is a sustainable strategy to enable decentralized access to safely managed water but remains challenging due to its limited daily water output at low relative humidity (≤30% RH). Here, we report super hygroscopic polymer films (SHPFs) composed of renewable biomasses and hygroscopic salt, exhibiting high water uptake of 0.64–0.96 g g−1 at 15–30% RH. Konjac glucomannan facilitates the highly porous structures with enlarged air-polymer interfaces for active moisture capture and water vapor transport. Thermoresponsive hydroxypropyl cellulose enables phase transition at a low temperature to assist the release of collected water via hydrophobic interactions. With rapid sorption-desorption kinetics, SHPFs operate 14–24 cycles per day in arid environments, equivalent to a water yield of 5.8–13.3 L kg−1. Synthesized via a simple casting method using sustainable raw materials, SHPFs highlight the potential for low-cost and scalable atmospheric water harvesting technology to mitigate the global water crisis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 19, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41467-022-30505-2
Entities
People
- Chuxin Lei
- Guihua Yu
- Hengyi Lu
- Weixin Guan
- Wen Shi
- Youhong Guo
Organizations
- United States Department of Defense