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Bridging materials innovations to sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting devices

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Abstract

The atmosphere contains 13,000 trillion litres of water, and it is a natural resource available anywhere. Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) is capable of extracting water vapour using sorbent materials across a broad spectrum of relative humidity, opening new avenues to address water scarcity faced by two-thirds of the population of the world. Although substantial progress has been made, there is still a considerable barrier between fundamental research and real-world applications. In this Review, we provide a multiscale perspective for SAWH technologies that can fill existing knowledge gaps across multiple length scales. First, we elucidate water sorption mechanisms at the molecular level, approaches to understanding sorbent materials, and water transport phenomena. With microscopic insights, we bridge materials innovations to device realization, discuss strategies to enhance device-level sorption kinetics and heat transfer performance, and show that a multiscale design and optimization strategy can lead to a new opportunity space towards system thermodynamic limits. Finally, we provide an outlook for the technoeconomic, social and environmental impact of large-scale SAWH as a global water technology. By bridging materials to devices, we envision that this multiscale perspective can guide next-generation SAWH technologies and facilitate a broader impact on society and the environment.

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Fig. 1: Multiscale features of SAWH.
Fig. 2: Understanding microscopic mechanisms and macroscopic properties of water sorption.
Fig. 3: Materials innovations and characteristics for water sorption.
Fig. 4: SAWH device modelling and its optimization strategy.
Fig. 5: Advanced design strategies and opportunity space to reach thermodynamic limits.
Fig. 6: Real-world impact on the worldwide water economy and environment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge support received from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Atmospheric Water Extraction (AWE) programme under contract HR001120S0014 with S. Cohen as programme manager. Y.Z. acknowledges funding support from MIT MathWorks Engineering fellowship.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yang Zhong, Lenan Zhang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Yang Zhong, Lenan Zhang, Bachir El Fil, Carlos D. Díaz-Marín, Adela Chenyang Li, Xinyue Liu, Alina LaPotin & Evelyn N. Wang

  2. Mechanical Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Xiangyu Li

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Xinyue Liu

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  1. Yang Zhong
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Contributions

Y.Z. and L.Z. contributed equally to this work. Y.Z., L.Z. and E.N.W. conceptualized the manuscript. Y.Z., L.Z., X.L., B.E.F. and C.D.D.-M. researched data and performed analysis for the article. L.Z. and Y.Z. conceived and illustrated the figures and tables. All authors contributed to the discussion of content, writing, and editing of the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Lenan Zhang or Evelyn N. Wang.

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Zhong, Y., Zhang, L., Li, X. et al. Bridging materials innovations to sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting devices. Nat Rev Mater (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-024-00665-2

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