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Nature Communications volume 15, Article number: 7678 (2024 ) Cite this article air permeability astm d737
An Author Correction to this article was published on 30 September 2024
This article has been updated
Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) has received unprecedented attention as a future water and energy platform. However, the water productivity of SAWH systems is still constrained by the slow sorption kinetics at material and component levels and inefficient condensation. Here, we report a facile method to prepare hygroscopic interconnected porous gel (HIPG) with fast sorption-desorption kinetics, high scalability and stability, and strong adhesion property for highly efficient SAWH. We further design a solar-wind coupling driven SAWH device with collaborative heat and mass enhancement achieving continuous water production. Concentrated sunlight contributes to enhancing the desorption and condensation synergistically, and natural wind is introduced to drive the device operation and improve the sorption kinetics. The device demonstrated record high working performance of 14.9 Lwater m−2 day−1 and thermal efficiency of 25.7% in indoor experiments and 3.5–8.9 Lwater m−2 day−1 in outdoor experiments by solar concentration without any other energy consumption. This work provides an up-and-coming pathway to realize highly efficient and sustainable clean water supply for off-grid and arid regions.
Freshwater scarcity is a global challenge threatening the sustainable development of human society. It is estimated that two-thirds of the global population will live under water-stressed conditions by 20251. Luckily, the atmosphere contains 12,900 trillion liters of water in the form of water vapor and droplets, equivalent to ~10% of all fresh water in lakes on earth2. Harvesting water from ubiquitous atmospheric water has been a promising technology to solve water shortage crisis3. Furthermore, the arid regions generally receive solar irradiation higher than the average, endowing the solar-driven SAWH systems with the potential to realize off-grid water supply4,5.
One of the most important factors affecting the working performance of sorption-based atmospheric water harvesters is the water sorption performance of sorbents. Researchers have made tremendous efforts to develop state-of-the-art sorbents such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)6,7,8,9, hydrogels10,11,12, liquid sorbents13,14 and composite sorbents15,16,17,18. Among them, salt-based composite sorbents composed of hygroscopic salt and porous matrix have attracted much attention due to their high water sorption capacity in a wide range of relative humidity (RH)19. Hygroscopic salts possess high water uptake, but often deliquesce at a certain RH, where the agglomeration of salt crystals causes the formation of the passivation layer, leading to sluggish sorption kinetics. The subsequent solution leakage results in a weak cycling stability20. The primary strategy to address this challenge is adopting porous matrixes including MOFs21,22, hollow spheres23,24, fibrous membranes25,26, 3D skeletons15,27,28 and hydrogels29,30,31,32 to disperse and confine the hygroscopic salts, wherein hydrogels are favored for their high tunability and strong water retention ability due to the swelling characteristic33. However, the internal structure of hydrogels is generally not conducive to the water vapor transport, resulting in slow sorption kinetics of hygroscopic gels34.
Although various state-of-the-art sorbents have been developed for SAWH, fully utilizing the performance of sorbents to serve practical applications of SAWH systems is a grand challenge. Due to the relatively low power density of solar energy, the temperature that the sorbent can reach during desorption is not high, leading to a low dew point temperature of the humid air in the desorption chamber and thus inefficient condensation. Most of the previously reported studies addressed this issue by adopting active cooling such as forced air cooling15, vapor compression refrigeration35,36 and thermoelectric refrigeration37, or employing electric heating to increase the desorption temperature38,39, both of which rely on electricity. However, most remote arid areas may not have well-developed power infrastructure and the conversion efficiency of only around 20% for photovoltaic panels limits the energy efficiency improvement of SAWH40, so it is urgent to find an effective strategy to realize efficient condensation without consuming electricity41. Besides, although multicyclic sorption-desorption and continuous operation modes with simultaneous sorption and desorption have been proposed to solve the mismatch between the sorption and desorption rates for enhancing the daily water yield42,43, most of them are achieved through manual operation or electric drive15,24,44. The former is not an ideal operation mode with a lot of inconvenience, while the latter is not suitable for the off-grid and distributed scenarios. Therefore, realizing highly efficient SAWH requires comprehensive consideration of sorbents, heat and mass transfer, components of the device and operation strategies of the system.
Herein, we developed a super hygroscopic interconnected porous gel (HIPG) with fast sorption and desorption kinetics, high scalability, reliable water retention ability, and strong adhesion property appropriate for continuous atmospheric water harvesting. The HIPG consisting of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and sodium polyacrylate (PAAS) matrix, lithium chloride (LiCl) and photothermal component titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles was prepared by foaming-drying method, which was time-saving and suitable for large-scale production. The generated interconnected porous structure with high pore volume and hierarchical pores reduced the water vapor diffusion resistance within the HIPG, accelerating the water vapor transport and thus leading to fast sorption and desorption kinetics. As a result, the HIPG showed high water uptake of 1.01, 2.03, 6.83 g g−1 under 30%, 60%, 90% RH, and could reach 93.2%, 80.5%, and 76.4% of the equilibrium sorption capacity within 30 minutes under 25 °C and 30%, 45%, 60% RH. For desorption, the HIPG also demonstrated rapid kinetics, which could release 87.7% of the equilibrium water sorption capacity within 30 minutes under 1 sun irradiation. To realize high water productivity with an ideal operation mode of SAWH, we designed a solar-wind coupling driven continuous SAWH device with enhanced thermal and mass transfer design. An efficient and cost-effective strategy was proposed to realize the synergetic enhancement of desorption and condensation through solar concentration, accelerating the SAWH cycle and improving water productivity. The wind energy was subtly introduced to drive the continuous operation of the device, speeding up the sorption kinetics simultaneously. Consequently, the SAWH device delivered extraordinary working performance of 4050 mLwater kgsorbent−1 day−1, 14.9 Lwater m−2 day−1 and thermal efficiency as high as 25.7% in indoor experiments (~57% RH) and 3.5–8.9 Lwater m−2 day−1 in outdoor experiments by solar concentration without any other energy consumption, superior to previous SAWH research. This work demonstrated a HIPG-based solar-wind coupling driven continuous SAWH device with high thermal efficiency and high water productivity, providing a promising pathway to realize highly efficient and sustainable clean water supply for off-grid and arid regions.
Salt-based hygroscopic gels perform well in water sorption capacity, but suffer from slow sorption kinetics caused by their high internal water diffusion resistance, especially for the massive sorbents with large packing thickness45. To accelerate the vapor transport for highly efficient SAWH, we developed an interconnected porous gel through the foaming-drying method. HPMC, a non-ionic surfactant, was added into the mixed solution of LiCl and TiN nanoparticles, enabling it to be fully foamed via mechanical agitation. The foam structure was relatively stable due to the reduced surface tension and enhanced solution viscosity. Benefiting from the highly tailorable properties of the gel, PAAS was introduced as an anionic surfactant and thickener, further decreasing the surface tension and improving the viscosity to stabilize the foam gel. Moreover, PAAS could prevent salt solution leakage due to the swelling behavior and provide numerous hydrophilic functional groups to enhance the adhesive force between the HIPG and the substrate for continuous water harvesting. The gelation of the HPMC-PAAS gel was achieved by association through hydrogen bonding (Supplementary Fig. 5). During the drying process of the foam gel, the HPMC-PAAS formed a matrix, and the water escaping channels became the water transfer channels (Fig. 1A). This foaming-drying method was time-saving and didn’t require the low-temperature vacuum environment, which was suitable for large-scale production.
A The schematic of the structure of HIPG and the water vapor transport within the HIPG. B, C The SEM images of HIPG from the top view (B) and high magnification (C). D, E The SEM images of HIPG from the cross-sectional view (D) and high magnification (E). F The pore size distribution of HIPG. G The concentration changes of PM2.5 and PM10 detected by the detectors located in the receiving cavity for different porous matrixes over time. H The FTIR patterns of HIPG at ~23 °C, ~60% RH. I The XRD patterns of each component and HIPG at different temperatures.
The top view scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image showed the interconnected porous structure with micron-sized pores of the HIPG (Fig. 1B). A relatively uniform pore size distribution was observed in the partially enlarged figure of the top view SEM image (Fig. 1C). Besides, the sectional view SEM image also exhibited the interconnected porous structure with high pore density ascribed to the excellent bubble stability of the foam gel (Fig. 1D). The SEM images with higher magnification indicated the presence of the pores ranging from hundreds to thousands of nanometers on the pore walls, which could also serve as water vapor transport channels (Fig. 1E, Supplementary Fig. 6). To obtain the specific pore size distribution of HIPG, the 3D X-ray microscope (also known as micro-CT) was adopted to scan a HIPG sample (Supplementary Fig. 7). Through the statistical analysis of micro-CT images, the main pore sizes of HIPG were concentrated between 150 and 300 μm as shown in Fig. 1F. To further characterize the interconnected porous structure of HIPG and its effect on internal diffusion resistance, we conducted a particulate diffusion test (Supplementary Fig. 8). The results in Fig. 1G indicated that the particles with the diameter less than 10 μm could continuously pass through the HIPG, which could serve as direct evidence for the interconnected porous structure of HIPG. Furthermore, the particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) and particulate matter 10 (PM10) concentration signals were detected much earlier, and the time to reach the upper detection limit was much shorter for HIPG than the commonly used porous matrixes such as melamine foam (MF) and activated carbon fiber felt (ACFF), indicating a smaller internal diffusion resistance for HIPG. The high degree of pore interconnectivity enabled the water vapor transport to occur in a nearly straight line, which also meant a low tortuosity. Together with high porosity, the internal structure of HIPG lowered the water vapor diffusion resistance significantly (Supplementary Note 1).
The energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) results illustrated that TiN nanoparticles and LiCl were uniformly distributed in the HIPG (Supplementary Fig. 9), which could cut down the heat losses by localized heating and improve the sorption kinetics of HIPG. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra for HPMC showed a peak at 3450 cm−1 due to the hydroxyl group (–OH) stretching. In HIPG, the peak resulting from –OH stretching moved to a lower wavenumber, indicating the enhancement of the hydrogen bonding network, which was attributed to the effect of LiCl on the interactions between the polymer network and water molecules (Fig. 1H). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern shown in Fig. 1I indicated that the chemical desorption of LiCl·H2O to LiCl occurred when the HIPG was heated to 90 °C, that is, the HIPG completely desorbed.
Figure 2A presents the water sorption isotherms of PAAS and HIPG. The three-stage water sorption process of LiCl, namely the chemisorption of LiCl, the deliquescence of LiCl·H2O, and the absorption of LiCl solution contributed to the high water uptake of HIPG over a wide RH range. In the initial phase of the sorption process, water vapor is adsorbed on the salt crystal’s surface through the hydration effect. Then the salt at the surface gradually dissolves in the captured water. The water vapor continues to be adsorbed, driven by the water vapor pressure difference between the surrounding air and the liquid film at the surface, until the salt solution is completely formed. In the salt solution, each cation and anion is surrounded by a spherical hydration shell through the coordination effect or electrostatic interaction with water molecules. The coordinated water in the hydration shell can be further connected via intermolecular hydrogen bonding to form a dynamic network. The water vapor sorption capacity of HIPG below 60% RH mainly came from the LiCl. The water sorption of PAAS mainly consisted of the physisorption of hydrophilic functional groups through hydrogen bonds and subsequent multilayer adsorption, which generally occurred after the RH reached a certain value, leading to the sudden increase in water sorption capacity of PAAS at 70% RH46. The PAAS showed the water uptake of 1.80 and 3.60 g g−1 under RH of 80% and 90% at 25 °C, enlarging the water sorption capacity of the HIPG under high RH conditions such as nighttime or humid weather. As a result, the HIPG delivered excellent water uptake of 0.64, 1.01, 1.39, 2.03, 3.27, 6.83 g g−1 under RH of 15%, 30%, 45%, 60%, 75%, 90% at 25 °C, indicating that HIPG has wide climate adaptability for SAWH.
A The water sorption isotherms of HIPG and PAAS at 25 °C. B The dynamic water sorption processes of bulk HIPG at the same temperature of 25 °C and different RHs of 30%, 45%, 60%, 75%, and 90%. C The experimental and simulated results of dynamic sorption processes for the single-sided sorption and quasi-double-sided sorption under 25 °C and 60% RH. The water uptake was normalized by dividing the equilibrium sorption capacity. D The UV–vis–NIR absorption spectrum of HIPG. E The solar-driven desorption processes of HIPG with sorption equilibrium at 25 °C, 60% RH under the same ambient temperature and RH and different solar irradiation intensities. F The water desorption isobars of HIPG at water vapor pressure of 1.90 and 3.17 kPa. G Thirty water sorption–desorption cycling tests of HIPG at 25 °C, 60% RH (1.90 kPa) for sorption and 90 °C, 4.2% RH (3.17 kPa) for desorption. H The comparison of water sorption performances of bulk HIPG and other state-of-the-art salt-based composite sorbents20,24,29,31,44,48,49. I Psychrometric chart showing the water desorption-condensation processes for the continuous SAWH device with and without solar concentration.
The dynamic water sorption processes of the HIPG are shown in Fig. 2B. We employed bulk HIPG samples with a scale-up dimension of 10 × 5 × 0.3 cm3 to conduct the water vapor sorption tests, thus, the heat and mass transfer were closer to practical application scenarios compared with the milligram-scale sorbent samples in synchronous thermal analyzer (STA) tests (Supplementary Table 1). Benefiting from the reduced internal diffusion resistance brought by the interconnected porous structure, the bulk HIPG showed ultrafast water sorption kinetics, delivering a rapid sorption rate of 0.03, 0.08, 0.09, 0.14, 0.18, 0.20 g g−1 min−1 initially under RH of 15%, 30%, 45%, 60%, 75%, 90%, respectively (Supplementary Fig. 10), and almost reaching the sorption equilibrium within 60, 40, 60, 100, 150 min for RH of 15%, 30%, 45%, 60%, 75%, respectively. Besides, 78.1%, 93.2%, 80.5%, and 76.4% of the equilibrium sorption capacity for the bulk HIPG could be achieved within 30 minutes under 25 °C and RH of 15%, 30%, 45%, and 60%, respectively, which is favored to accelerate the water harvesting cycle and improve the water productivity.
In addition to improving the sorption kinetics of the HIPG through pore engineering, we also optimized the structural arrangement of the sorption bed to enhance the sorption rate of the HIPG. The sorption bed was built by attaching the dust-free paper loaded with HIPG to a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) mesh conveyor belt. The breathability of dust-free paper and mesh conveyor belt allowed the HIPG to capture water vapor from both its front and back, expanding the contact area between the HIPG and water vapor. The sorption kinetic curves for both single-sided sorption and quasi-double-sided sorption were recorded in Fig. 2C. The quasi-double-sided sorption case delivered an ultrahigh water uptake of 1.55, 1.79 g g−1 under 25 °C and 60% RH within 30, 60 minutes, 35.2%, 22.1% higher than the single-sided one, respectively. Therefore, the structure design of quasi-double-sided sorption enhanced the sorption kinetics of the sorption bed, benefiting the improvement of the daily water yield of the atmospheric water harvester. Moreover, we simulated the single-sided and quasi-double-sided water sorption behaviors of the HIPG at 25 °C and 60% RH based on the two-concentration model (Supplementary Note 2), which were in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data (Fig. 2C). The simulation results for quasi-double-sided water sorption process of the HIPG at 25 °C and 30% RH also agreed well with the experimental results, as shown in Supplementary Fig. 12, verifying the accuracy of the model.
Figure 2D shows the ultraviolet–visible–near infrared (UV–vis–NIR) absorption spectra of the HIPG. Due to the localized surface plasmon resonance effect of the photothermal component TiN nanoparticles47, the HIPG exhibited extremely high absorbance of up to 98% throughout the solar spectrum and possessed high photothermal conversion efficiency, which benefited fast water desorption. The water desorption profiles under various solar irradiation intensities were investigated, as shown in Fig. 2E. Profiting from the excellent photothermal performance of the TiN nanoparticles, the HIPG could release 87.7%, 94.1%, 98.5%, and almost 100% of the equilibrium sorption capacity of water within 30, 15, 10, 10 min under 1, 2, 3, 4 sun irradiation, respectively. Especially for the light-concentrated cases, ultrafast desorption kinetics were obtained owing to the enormous water vapor pressure difference between the salt solution and the surrounding air caused by the high temperature of HIPG. Meanwhile, the high temperature of HIPG resulted in an extremely low RH of the local air around the HIPG, leading to a lower equilibrium sorption capacity. The water desorption isobars of the HIPG were evaluated at two typical water vapor partial pressures of 1.90 kPa (25 °C, 60% RH) and 3.17 kPa (25 °C, 100% RH), as shown in Fig. 2F. The former corresponded to the open desorption case because the moisture content of the air throughout the day is stable, while the latter matched the closed desorption case considering that the water vapor partial pressure of the air around the sorbent approximately equals to that of the air close to the condensing surface when reaching desorption equilibrium with the assumption of condensation temperature of 25 °C. The water desorption could be divided into three stages: the desorption of water bonded with the polymer matrix and the water evaporation from the LiCl solution, the crystallization of LiCl hydrate, and the chemical desorption of LiCl hydrate.
The cycling stability of sorbents is of great concern for AWH, especially for long-term practical applications. Therefore, we evaluated the cycling stability of the HIPG under two kinds of sorption-desorption conditions by performing sorption and desorption cycles thirty times (Fig. 2G and Supplementary Fig. 13). One was at 25 °C, 60% RH for sorption, and 90 °C, 3.17 kPa (corresponding to the condensation temperature of 25 °C) for desorption. The other was at 25 °C, 90% RH for sorption, and 90 °C, 1.90 kPa for desorption. The results indicated that there was almost no attenuation in the equilibrium sorption capacity of the HIPG after experiencing dozens of cycles. Even under RH of up to 90%, the HIPG didn’t show any solution leakage after multiple sorption-desorption cycling tests, which was attributed to the swelling characteristic of HIPG and capillary force caused by the porous structure. Additionally, the sorption-desorption kinetic characteristics were also stable after dozens of cycles, further demonstrating the excellent cycling stability of HIPG (Supplementary Figs. 14 and 15).
Figure 2H and Supplementary Fig. 16 present the water sorption performance comparison of bulk HIPG and other state-of-the-art salt-based composite sorbents under 30% and 60% RH20,24,29,31,44,48,49. Benefiting from the higher salt content, the bulk HIPG exhibited higher water sorption capacity than other state-of-the-art salt-based composite sorbents. Additionally, the normalized sorption kinetic comparisons showed that the bulk HIPG possessed faster water sorption kinetics than other state-of-the-art salt-based composite sorbents (Supplementary Fig. 17), which was ascribed to the lower internal water vapor diffusion resistance resulted by the interconnected porous structure of HIPG.
To bridge the gap in water harvesting performance between the sorbents and SAWH systems, we proposed an efficient and cost-effective strategy to enhance water desorption and condensation synergistically through solar concentration. As shown in the psychrometric chart (Fig. 2I), with larger solar irradiation flux input, the desorption rate and the temperature of the desorbed water vapor would go up, and the moisture content of the humid air in the desorption chamber rose, thereby raising the dew point temperature of the humid air compared to the situation without solar concentration. Meanwhile, an aluminum condenser with fins was used to reduce the temperature lift of the condenser during the condensation process by enlarging its heat capacity and enhancing the convective heat transfer between the condenser and the environment. When the humid air drops to its corresponding dew point temperature, the temperature difference between the humid air and the condenser surfaces becomes larger for the solar concentration case, thus accelerating the condensation heat release.
According to the fast sorption and desorption kinetics of the HIPG, a solar-wind coupling driven continuous SAWH device was designed, as shown in Fig. 3A. This SAWH device was composed of a desorption chamber, a condenser, a sorption bed, and gearing. The sorbent was heated by solar irradiation and released high-temperature water vapor. Then, the water vapor was transferred into the condenser to be cooled and condensed into liquid water. The sorbent performed cyclic movement under the drive of the gearing to achieve continuous sorption and desorption. Considering the mismatch between the sorption and desorption rates (Supplementary Fig. 18), the sorption area was expanded by adopting two rollers spaced at a certain distance to hold the conveyor belt-type sorption bed. Benefiting from the high scalability of the preparation method of HIPG, the HIPG with a length of ~79 cm could be prepared in a single synthesis process and shaped into desired patterns (Supplementary Fig. 19).
A The structure schematic of the continuous SAWH device. B The adhesion properties of HIPG on various substrates, including aluminum, stainless steel, silica glass, acrylic, wood, and PTFE (weight: the big one: 100 g; the small one: 20 g). C The heat transfer analysis of the continuous SAWH device during the desorption-condensation processes.
To achieve continuous SAWH with rotatable form, an important thing is that the sorbent must be firmly attached to a substrate with cyclic motion. The HIPG exhibited strong adhesion properties to various substrates such as acrylic, silica glass, stainless steel, aluminum, wood, and PTFE (Supplementary Figs. 20 and 21). An acrylic plate with a cross-section of 2 × 1 cm2 in contact with the HIPGs attached to the aforementioned substrates was capable of suspending weights of 120 g, demonstrating the strong adhesion of the HIPG to various substrates (Fig. 3B). The strong adhesive force came from the numerous hydrogen bonds formed between the HIPG and non-metallic substrates, the coordination bonds formed between the carboxylate group from the HIPG and metal ions in metallic substrates50, and the mechanical interlocking effect with rough surfaces51, achieving secure attachment of the HIPG with no adhesive.
As shown in Fig. 3C, the mesh conveyor belt made of PTFE with a thermal conductivity as low as 0.28 W m−1 K−1 could effectively reduce the conduction heat loss from the sorbent to the conveyor belt (Qcond-sub) and ensure more energy was utilized for water desorption. The rollers in contact with the conveyor belt were made up of a hollow circular tube and acrylic plugs at both ends, and its interior was pumped to less than 5 Pa to further suppress the conduction heat loss. Moreover, the desorption chamber was made by a double-layer highly transparent acrylic, with a vacuum (<5 Pa) between the two layers, which could cut down the convection and conduction heat transfer from the interlayer to the outer layer (Qcond/conv) and uplift the temperature of the interlayer, thus diminishing the heat loss of the sorbent caused by the convective and radiation heat transfer between the sorbent and the transparent cover (Qconv/rad-cov). Different from many previous studies that directly used the sunlight transmission cover as the condensing surface, the device in this work adopted a split design to separate the condenser from the desorption chamber with the help of a PV-driven turbofan, which could prevent condensing surfaces from being heated by radiative heat emitted by the sorbent and avoid the optical loss (~30%) caused by the mist from condensation (Supplementary Fig. 23). The PV-driven turbofan could not only transmit the desorbed water vapor from the desorption chamber to the condenser efficiently but also enhance the condensation heat transfer (Qconv-cond) between the water vapor and condenser by enlarging the convective heat transfer coefficient through airflow disturbance. A small-size PV panel was placed above the condenser through a thermal insulation support frame, which could both power the turbofan and prevent the condenser being heated by sunlight.
To realize convenient SAWH for off-grid and distributed scenarios, the natural wind was designed to be utilized for driving the gearing to achieve continuous operation of the device and accelerate the sorption kinetics of the sorption bed, consequently increasing the daily water yield of the device. We simulated the effect of the wind speed on the dynamic water sorption kinetics of the sorption bed under 25 °C and 60% RH by employing the two-concentration model (Supplementary Fig. 24). The results indicated that the sorption rate of the sorption bed improved with increasing wind speed. However, when the wind speed exceeded 2 m s−1, the sorption rate tended to be stable as the convective transport resistance on the external surface Rsurf played little role in the sorption kinetics of the sorption bed.
Figure 4A presents the digital photo of the solar-wind coupling driven continuous SAWH device during the indoor tests. The duration of a single water collection experiment was set at 8 h according to the general sunrise and sunset routine. To ensure the comparability of experimental results, experiments with the same cycle time were conducted under similar ambient temperature and RH conditions (Supplementary Fig. 25, 24–27 °C, 55–60% RH). As shown in Fig. 4B, with the solar irradiation intensity increased from 1 to 4 kW m−2, the temperature difference between the sorbent in the desorption region and the condenser outer surface enlarged from 23 to 55 °C benefitting from the separation arrangement of the desorption chamber and condenser, leading to a larger driving force for water vapor condensation (Figs. S26 and 4E). Figure 4C presents the water production performance of this continuous SAWH device under various solar irradiation intensities. A total amount of 60.8 g of water was collected within 8 h under 4 suns (Figs. S28 and S29), corresponding to the ultrahigh water production rate of 1.86 Lwater m−2 h−1.
A The digital photo of the continuous SAWH device. 1-support frame, 2-PV panel, 3-water collector, 4-shading panel, 5-shading cotton. Scale length: 5 cm. B The temperature of the sorbent and condenser outer surface after reaching the thermal equilibrium during the water production tests under different solar intensities. Error bar: standard deviation (SD). C The mass changes of the collected water under different solar irradiation intensities over 8-hour indoor tests. D The mass changes of the collected water with different cycle times under 4 suns over 8-hour indoor tests. E The temperature evolutions of different positions of the continuous SAWH device with a cycle time of 30 minutes under 4 suns during the 8-hour indoor test. F and G The simulation results of the water desorption-condensation processes. The temperature (F) and water vapor partial pressure (G) distributions in the device. H The water yield and water production rate of the continuous SAWH device under 4 suns over seven-day cycles. I Water collection performance comparison of our work and other solar-driven SAWH devices6,7,15,24,25,52,53,54.
Besides the solar irradiation intensity, the cycle time is also a key factor affecting the water yield of the continuous SAWH device. We studied the effect of the cycle time on the water yield of the continuous SAWH device under 4 sun irradiations. The results shown in Fig. 4D proclaimed that when the cycle time was 30 min (i.e., the corresponding rotational speed of the sorption bed was 2 r h−1), the continuous SAWH device possessed the highest water yield of 4.05 g g−1 within 8 h. A shorter cycle time corresponded to a lower desorption temperature and a smaller temperature difference for condensation, thus leading to a reduction in the desorption and condensation rate. When the cycle time was too long, as the driving force of the desorption process gradually decreased, the desorption rate reduced significantly, consequently affecting the water production. Only when the sorption, desorption, and condensation reached a dynamic equilibrium could the water yield of the continuous SAWH device be directly proportional to time. Therefore, each solar irradiation intensity corresponded to an optimal cycle time to maximize the daily water yield.
Figure 4E recorded the temperature evolutions at various locations of the continuous SAWH device with a cycle time of 30 min under 4 suns. It took approximately one hour for the device to reach thermal equilibrium. A maximum temperature of the sorbent up to 95.5 °C was achieved attributed to the solar concentration and good thermal insulation of the device. With the advanced thermal design of the condenser, the outer surface of the condenser reached its maximum temperature as low as ~40 °C. Benefiting from the enhanced convection heat transfer caused by the turbofan, the temperature of the air inside the condenser (the location shown in Fig. 3A) merely raised to about 51 °C. Additionally, the temperature of the sorbent located in the sorption region was measured by an IR camera and was only 5 K higher than the ambient temperature (Supplementary Fig. 30) due to the shading cotton, causing little impact on the water sorption performance of the sorbent.
To better investigate the heat and mass transfer process inside the device, we employed the COMSOL software to simulate the desorption-condensation process of the device (Supplementary Note 2). The simulated temperature and water vapor distribution inside the device were shown in Figs. 4F, G, respectively, which were in good agreement with the experimental results. Due to the separation arrangement of the desorption chamber and the condenser, a temperature difference of up to 55 °C was maintained between the sorbent and the condenser, leading to a higher desorption and condensation rate (Fig. 4F). Moreover, the highest water vapor partial pressure was 19.7 kPa near the sorbent, while the water vapor partial pressure close to the condenser was about 6.5–9.3 kPa, which generated a strong driving force to promote the water vapor transport from above the sorbent to the condenser (Fig. 4G). With the synergetic heat and mass transfer enhancement and optimized cycle time, the device delivered a thermal efficiency as high as 25.7% including the PV panel power for driving the turbofan (i.e., 31.7% without the inclusion of the turbofan power), which is twice that of other solar-driven SAWH devices based on solid sorbents (Supplementary Table 2).
To test the stability of the HIPG and the continuous SAWH device, we conducted indoor experiments under comparable ambient temperature and RH conditions (23–27 °C, 54–61% RH) for 7 consecutive days. As shown in Fig. 4H, the continuous SAWH device delivered a stable water yield ranging from 57.5 to 64.5 g within 8 h, corresponding to the water production rate of 1.76–1.98 Lwater m−2 h−1, demonstrating the excellent cycling stability of the whole device. We also conducted the one-sun water collection experiments to demonstrate the superiority of the structural design further (Supplementary Fig. 32). The continuous SAWH device generated a high water production rate of 0.264 Lwater m−2 h−1 and high thermal efficiency of 12.1% (18.0% without including the turbofan power) with a cycle time of 1.5 h, superior to the previously reported SAWH devices (Fig. 4I)6,7,15,24,25,52,53,54.
A The evolutions of natural solar irradiation intensity (without concentration), wind speed, ambient temperature, and RH over the 3-hour outdoor test. B The temperature evolutions of the air inside condenser, the condenser outer surface, and the environment during the 3-hour outdoor test. C The accumulated specific water yield and water production rate over the 3-hour outdoor test. Error bar: SD. D The comparison of water production rate of our continuous SAWH device and other previously reported state-of-the-art solar-driven continuous SAWH devices13,15,24.
To further confirm the cycling stability of the gel sorbent and the SAWH device in outdoor environments, we conducted outdoor water collection experiments for 15 days in May 2024. The operation time ranged from 5.5 to 7.5 h depending on the practical weather conditions. Supplementary Figs. 34 and S35 recorded the daily weather data and temperature curves of the device during the daytime water collection process for a consecutive week, respectively. The daily water yield and daily average water production rate were 3.5–8.9 Lwater m−2 day−1 and 0.54–1.18 Lwater m−2 h−1, respectively. The water production rate of the device was stable under fine weather conditions, demonstrating the reliable stability of the gel sorbent and device (Supplementary Fig. 36). We compared the water production performance of this device with other previously reported state-of-the-art continuous SAWH devices based on the daily water yield (Fig. 5D). The results showed that water production rates in view of the sorbent weight and desorption area of the device were much higher than the previously reported solar-driven continuous SAWH devices without solar concentration (the environmental conditions were shown in Supplementary Table 2). Additionally, this device also delivered a higher thermal efficiency than other solar-driven SAWH devices based on solid sorbents, demonstrating the superiority of our material selection, solar-wind coupling driven strategy and device design. We also detected the concentration of possible ions in the collected water by ion chromatography (IC). The results showed that the quality of the collected water met the drinking water standard set by the World Health Organization (Supplementary Fig. 37).
To further investigate the application potential of this solar-wind coupling driven continuous SAWH device, we plotted the global annual average daily direct normal solar irradiation distribution and global annual average near-ground wind speed distribution, as shown in Supplementary Fig. 38. It is noticed that regions such as the vast inland regions of Asia, northern and southern Africa, Australia in Oceania, central North America, and central and southern South America all have abundant solar energy resources and annual average wind speed of above 1 m s−1, demonstrating promising potential of the solar-wind coupling driven atmospheric water harvesting for freshwater supply worldwide. Additionally, there are abundant wind resources at the edges of various land plates and above the sea surface, which possess ideal geographical conditions for the layout of the large-scale solar-wind coupling driven continuous SAWH device.
We reported a facile and scalable strategy to prepare the hygroscopic interconnected porous gel (HIPG) with fast sorption-desorption kinetics, strong adhesion properties, and reliable water retention ability appropriate for continuous atmospheric water harvesting. The interconnected porous structure with high pore volume and hierarchical pores effectively reduced the water vapor diffusion resistance within the HIPG, thus accelerating the water vapor transport and leading to fast water capture and release properties. Consequently, the HIPG showed ultrahigh water uptake of 6.83 g g−1 under 90% RH and could capture 93.2%, 80.5%, and 76.4% of the equilibrium sorption capacity within 30 min under 25 °C and 30%, 45%, 60% RH and release 87.7% of the equilibrium water uptake within 30 minutes under 1 sun irradiation. We further designed a solar-wind coupling driven continuous SAWH device with enhanced heat and mass transfer design. The efficient solar concentration strategy was proposed to realize synergetic water desorption and condensation enhancement, accelerating the AWH cycle and improving water productivity. The wind energy was introduced as the driving force for the device, and sped up the water sorption kinetics of the sorption bed. As a result, the solar-wind coupling driven continuous SAWH device delivered extraordinary working performance of 4050 mLwater kgsorbent−1 day−1, 14.9 Lwater m−2 day−1 and thermal efficiency as high as 25.7% in indoor experiments (~57% RH) and 3.5–8.9 Lwater m−2 day−1 in outdoor experiments by solar concentration without any other energy consumption, superior to the previous SAWH devices. Our work provided a potential approach to realizing a highly efficient and sustainable clean water supply for off-grid and arid regions.
Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC, viscosity: 100,000 mPa s, Macklin), sodium polyacrylate (PAAS, average molecular weight: 5,000,000~7,000,000, 80 mesh, ACMEC), lithium chloride (LiCl, 99%, Aladdin), Titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles (99.9% metals basis, 20 nm, Macklin).
The proportions of chemical composition for HIPG were optimized to realize efficient continuous SAWH (details can be seen in Supplementary Note 6). In a typical synthesis, 540 mg TiN powder and 6 g LiCl powder were first dispersed in 50 mL deionized (DI) water by ultrasonic treatment for 0.5 h. Then, 1.5 g HPMC was slowly added into the suspension and the solution was mechanically stirred at 800 rpm to be foamed for 15 min. Afterward, 3 g PAAS was slowly added into the mixed solution and the mixed solution was mechanically stirred at 1500 rpm for 1 h to enable the precursor solution to be well foamed. The as-prepared foam gel was poured into a mold with a dimension of 100 × 50 × 3 mm and was dried at 90 °C for 3 h to obtain the HIPG.
The structures and element distribution of the HIPG were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM; JSM-7800F, JEOL, China). The 3D microstructures of the HIPG were characterized by 3D X-ray microscopy (micro-CT; Xradia 520 Versa, Carl Zeiss, Germany). The distribution of pore size was determined by analyzing the micro-CT images. The interactions between salt and polymeric networks were observed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) conducted by the FTIR Spectrometer (Nicolet 6700, Thermo Fisher, America). The chemical composition and the salt state of the HIPG were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD; D8 Advance, Bruker, Germany) with a scanning rate of 5° min−1. The water sorption isotherms were measured by a surface area and porosity analyzer (ASAP 2020 PLUS HD88, Micromeritics, America). The absorbance of the HIPG in the range of 250 to 2500 nm was measured by a UV–vis–NIR spectrophotometer (Lamda 950, China).
The HIPG with Φ7×0.5 cm2 was coated on the discs made of aluminum, stainless steel, silica glass, acrylic, wood, and PTFE, respectively, with a diameter of 8 cm. Then these discs with totally dried HIPG samples were placed into a spin coater and were fixed on the sample disk by vacuuming. The adhesion strength between the dry HIPGs and substrate materials was characterized by being tested at different rotational speeds for one minute. The morphology of the samples before and after rotation was recorded by taking photos. After that, the samples were transferred into the humidity chamber (BINDER, KMF115, Germany) to capture water vapor under 25 °C and 60% RH for one hour. The adsorbed samples were placed in the spin coater again to rotate at different rotation speeds for one minute. The morphology of the samples before and after rotation was recorded by taking photos.
What’s more, the discs made of the above substrate materials coated by dried HIPG samples with a dimension of Φ7 × 0.2 cm2 were placed into the humidity chamber under 25 °C, 60% RH to adsorb water vapor for 1 h. Afterward, an acrylic plate with a cross-sectional size of 2 × 1 cm was in contact with the HIPGs. The other end of the acrylic plate was attached with a counterweight of 120 g.
First, the bulk HIPG samples with a scale-up dimension of 10 × 5 × 0.3 cm3 were dried in an oven at 90 °C for 4 h. Then the dried samples were transferred into the humidity chamber at a constant temperature of 25 °C and RHs of 30%, 45%, 60%, 75% and 90% for 480 min. Single-sided sorption test involved coating the HIPG on an acrylic substrate and then testing it in the humidity chamber. Quasi-double-sided sorption refers to placing the HIPG samples coating on the dust-free paper on a bracket with hexagonal holes in a regular pattern. The weight changes of the bulk HIPGs were recorded by an analytical balance.
The indoor desorption tests were carried out by using a constant climate chamber with a solar simulator. To measure the water desorption performances of HIPG under various solar intensities, bulk HIPG samples saturated at 25 °C and 60% RH were placed in the constant climate chamber to release water vapor under 25 °C, 60% RH and 1–4 sun irradiation intensities, respectively. The analytical balance was employed to record the mass changes of the samples.
The cycling sorption-desorption tests of HIPG were carried out by the humidity chamber. For the first kind of sorption-desorption cycle, the HIPG samples captured water vapor at 25 °C and 60% RH for 180 min and released water at 90 °C and 3.17 kPa (corresponding to the condensation temperature of 25 °C) for 45 min for thirty cycles. For the second, the HIPG samples captured water vapor at 25 °C and 90% RH for 720 min and released water at 90 °C and 1.90 kPa for 50 min for 30 cycles.
The indoor water harvesting tests were conducted with a solar simulator. The ambient temperature and RH were controlled by the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. Considering there was no wind indoors, an electric motor was connected to the shaft of the upper roller through a conveyor belt, driving the roller and the sorption bed to rotate. Different cycle times were achieved by adjusting the output speed of the electrical motor. The solar concentration was realized through a Fresnel lens. The water production performance of the continuous SAWH device was measured with the same cycle time of 30 min under 1–4 sun irradiations. The temperature of different positions of the device was measured by thermocouples. In order to determine the temperature of the moving HIPG in the desorption region, we inserted a thermocouple into the sorbent at the same position before it entered the desorption region, and then enabled it to pass through the entire desorption region together with the sorbent, consequently obtaining the temperature change of the sorbent in the desorption region over time. The environmental conditions were recorded by a thermo-hygrometer.
For outdoor water harvesting experiments, the natural solar irradiation and natural wind speed were recorded by a meteorological station. The environmental temperature and RH were measured by a thermo-hygrometer. The temperature of different positions of the device was measured by thermocouples. Fan blades were used to convert wind energy into mechanical energy, driving the gearing to operate. To solve the mismatch between the high rotation speed of the fan blades and the slow rotation speed required by the device, we adopted a gear reducer to adjust the rotation speed. The fan blades were fixed on the input shaft of the gear reducer. The output end of the gear reducer is matched with the shaft of the upper roller through a coupling. By tuning the reduction ratio of the gear reducer, the rotation speed of the device could be decreased to near the optimal value. The solar concentration was realized through a Fresnel lens.
All the data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary information. Source data are provided with this paper.
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52879-1
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The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52106101), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Grant No. 23X010201008)], and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 2022T150402 and 2021M702100).
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, MOE Engineering Research Center of Solar Power and Refrigeration, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240, Shanghai, China
Xinge Yang, Zhihui Chen, Chengjie Xiang, He Shan & Ruzhu Wang
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X.Y.: Conceptualization, investigation, methodology, validation, data curation, formal analysis, software, visualization, writing-original draft. Z.C.: Investigation, validation, visualization, writing—review & editing. C.X.: Methodology, formal analysis, writing—review & editing, funding acquisition. H.S.: Investigation, software, writing—review & editing. R.W.: Conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing—review & editing, funding acquisition.
Correspondence to Chengjie Xiang or Ruzhu Wang.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Communications thanks Lingxiao Li and the other, anonymous, reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
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Yang, X., Chen, Z., Xiang, C. et al. Enhanced continuous atmospheric water harvesting with scalable hygroscopic gel driven by natural sunlight and wind. Nat Commun 15, 7678 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52137-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52137-4
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