Hygroscopic hydrogels are emerging as scalable and low-cost sorbents for atmospheric water harvesting, dehumidification, passive cooling, and thermal energy storage.
“Humanity faces important challenges related to the global supply of energy and water,” MIT researcher Carlos Díaz-Marin and colleagues wrote in their paper.
“Efforts in energy and water have to be in line with the worldwide push toward net-zero emission strategies as well as adapt to constantly evolving environmental conditions in a rapidly changing climate.”
“Research toward innovative, functional materials is a powerful means to address these challenges,” they added.
“One promising class of materials are sorbents. Sorption of water is commonplace in nature and widely used in a variety of technical processes that address water scarcity and enhance energy efficiency.”
“These include freshwater production through atmospheric water harvesting, passive thermal management, thermal energy storage, and space conditioning.”
“For sorbents to be good candidates for these applications, they need to be low-cost, scalable, and sustainable, as well as provide high water vapor uptake (i.e., high hygroscopicity), good sorption kinetics, low desorption enthalpies, and long-term cyclability. Finally, the sorbents must be easy to be integrated into the respective devices.”
Díaz-Marin and co-authors synthesized a superabsorbent material that can soak up a record amount of moisture from the air, even in desert-like conditions.
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