Freshwater Harvester with Ultra‐High Yield by Super‐Hygroscopic Composite Under Extremely Low Humidity Environment
Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) is a promising strategy for freshwater production to alleviate water scarcity, but it remains challenging due to its limited daily water production volume at extremely low relative humidity (RH). Herein, a super-hygroscopic composite (CHG) is reported that is fabricated by using chitosan (CS), hyaluronic acid (HA), metal-organic frameworks (MOF-303), graphene oxide (GO), and calcium chloride (CaCl<sub>2</sub>). In this strategy, the CS-HA serves as a cation/anion substrate to form stable hydrogel structure with CaCl<sub>2</sub> salt. MOF-303 and GO exhibit a significantly enhanced water harvesting capacity at low RH (≤30% RH). CaCl<sub>2</sub> additionally improves structural stability, firmly locking the MOF-303 and GO particles into the entangled chain structure of the micro-gel network. The hydrophilicity and porosity of CS-HA frameworks promote diffusion and storage of water molecules, realizing the effective atmospheric moisture capture of the CHG. The CHG realizes a high-water uptake of ≈0.78 g g<sup>-1</sup> at 20% RH, and after absorbing water to saturation at 45% RH, it achieves ≈0.93 g g<sup>-1</sup> in 120 min under 0.50-sun illumination. Especially, CHG on a large scale displays a high sorption-desorption efficiency, which achieves an excellent freshwater yield of ≈9.95 L kg<sup>-1</sup> day<sup>-1</sup> under ≈25% RH and temperature of ≈30 °C via the self-made device. This work offers new insights into the design of high-performance materials for AWH applications in water-lacking situations or arid regions.
Authors
- Tiance Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0538-0001)
- Guo Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0696-1040)
- Huijie Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3883-5399)
- Qiang Luo
- Lingmei Zhu
- Yongmei Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8379-8876)
- Yongping Hou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6732-2002)
- Ayaz Arif Khan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5104-5741)
- Maolin Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5501-240X)
- Chang Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4830-4025)
- Mingshuo Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4209-1288)
Institutions
- Beihang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2025-05-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202503948
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.18
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China