Every year, 220 million people die from water shortages in the world, a quarter of whom live in water-stressed areas, and 5 million people die from water-related diseases, most of whom are children. This number is shocking, but now an exciting technological breakthrough has brought hope to the research team of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. They have developed an air-water extraction technology that does not require electricity and other energy sources, and can even extract water from arid deserts. This technology is expected to help people obtain precious sources of life in extreme environments and save more people.
Workers are operating air water extraction
Discovery and principle of the new method
It is generally known that the earth's atmosphere is rich in a large amount of water vapor resources, about 12.9 trillion tons, which is more than the amount of water in all rivers on the surface. However, nearly 80% of diseases in developing countries are related to water quality, and these areas are in a sunny environment. Therefore, the research team of Shanghai Jiao Tong University began to explore how to use sunlight to obtain clean water resources. After many experiments and analytical studies, the researchers developed a material composed of titanium nitride, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and lithium chloride to form a super-hygroscopic porous gel (THL). Using the desorption and condensation effects of solar energy, they found that this is the most effective solar-driven air water extraction strategy to date.
In this process, the researchers chose lithium chloride as a strong hygroscopic salt substance to adsorb and retain a large amount of water through strong interactions. However, lithium chloride can cause passivation, corrosion and leakage problems after deliquescing. To solve this problem, the researchers successfully created a super-hygroscopic porous gel by adding titanium nitride, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and optimizing the material structure. According to the test results, at 25°C and 15%–90% relative humidity, each kilogram of porous gel can adsorb 1.18 kg to 6.43 kg of water, exceeding any previously known material. This lays a solid foundation for extracting water from the air.
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Applications and advantages of the new method
However, adsorption is only the first step in the water extraction process, and how to release the water is a key issue. The titanium nitride added by the researchers to the porous gel played an important role. Titanium nitride is a photothermal conversion material with localized surface plasmon resonance effect, similar to precious metals. In addition, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose has excellent thermal response properties. When the porous gel is exposed to solar radiation, it can quickly heat up to above 90°C, and then release 80% of its water within 15 minutes through condensation. In this way, the researchers took full advantage of solar energy and achieved efficient water acquisition.
To further optimize the water extraction process, the research team designed a device containing two adsorbents. By optimizing the structure and operation strategy, they achieved a continuous adsorption-desorption process and improved the water extraction efficiency. In outdoor summer and winter tests, when the relative humidity was about 60% and 30%, the water collection per kilogram of gel per day reached 3.82 liters and 2.98 liters, respectively. Since this porous gel can work properly under a wide range of humidity conditions, it can also extract water from the air in arid desert areas. Moreover, this process does not require other energy sources, and the desorption process can also raise the temperature of water vapor to above the pasteurization temperature, thereby removing most non-volatile components, as well as various microorganisms and viruses. This means that the extracted water can be drunk directly without additional purification steps.
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