Honeycomb Organogel-Fabric for Osmotic Pressure-Driven Atmospheric Water Harvesting.

Abstract

Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) is a promising method to combat the challenge of water shortage. Despite the great progress of AWH, the imperfect structural design, complex fabrication procedures, and sluggish sorption/desorption kinetics hinder its AHW performance. Herein, a honeycomb organogel fabric (CHOF) with an interior osmotic pressure of 184.7 atm is reported. The calcium alginate skeleton was designed to accommodate hygroscopic glycerin solution, enabling the enhancement of water sorption of the CHOF. The interior osmotic pressure could refresh the sorption/desorption sites of the CHOF by continuously transporting the sorbed water from the surface to interior and the reverse, thus strengthening sorption/desorption kinetics. The honeycomb structure and loaded carbon black of CHOF could endow it with an effective solar-to-thermal performance for water desorption. Furthermore, based on the mature textile weaving technology, the CHOF was easy to be scaled up and did not show a decline of performance. The rapid sorption-desorption kinetics of CHOF was beneficial for daily multiple capture-release cycles. Ultimately, the daily water production of CHOF could achieve 6.70 kg m-2 day-1, which proves that the CHOF could be regarded as a sustainable material for large-scale water production.