Biomimetic TPMS Structure‐Based Entangled Hydrogel for Efficient Solar‐Driven Atmospheric Water Harvesting
Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) is emerging as a sustainable and decentralized strategy for producing freshwater. However, achieving rapid AWH remains challenging due to the slow sorption kinetics, especially in the case of thick hygroscopic hydrogels. Here, a TPMS structure-based entangled hydrogel mesh (TSEHs) is proposed, featuring a hierarchical porous structure that facilitates a high mass transfer coefficient and a significant air-hygroscopic site interface. The TPMS-based hierarchical structure endows the TSEHs with rapid sorption-desorption kinetics. As a result, in comparison to conventional dense hydrogels (CDHs), TSEHs achieve a remarkable reduction in sorption time by 385%. When the thickness of TSEHs increases from 2 to 12 mm, only a slight decrease in equilibrium sorption time is observed, while CDHs exhibit an exponential increase in equilibrium sorption. Furthermore, the rapid water uptake of ultra-thick TSEHs is demonstrated at 50 mm, which, to the best of the knowledge, represents the largest recorded thickness for hygroscopic gels. Additionally, a continuous solar-driven TSEH-based water production prototype is developed, achieving a high water collection rate of 4.89 kg m<sup>-2</sup> under 1 sun and showcasing its significant practical potential.
Authors
- Sihan Tang
- Zhengyi Mao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5947-7282)
- Xiaoguang Duan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9635-5807)
- Ronghui Qi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1967-6142)
- Kunwei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8520-5907)
- Amr Osman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3675-1992)
- Zhen Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9430-1143)
- Hanyang Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1257-1735)
- Junda Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4466-7221)
- Jian Lü (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5362-0316)
- Lei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3638-6219)
- Zhixian Tang
Institutions
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Nanchang University (CN)
- City University of Hong Kong (HK)
- City University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Research Institute (CN)
- The University of Adelaide (AU)
- South China University of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2025-11-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202515166
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Solar-Powered Water Purification Methods
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.73