Enhanced adsorption-based atmospheric water harvesting using a photothermal cotton rod for freshwater production in cold climates

Solar energy-powered adsorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (ABAWH) is an emerging technology for freshwater production, especially in water-scarce regions that are remote and landlocked. Numerous water adsorbents have been used in ABAWH devices to convert molecule to liquid water. However, i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:RSC advances 2021-11, Vol.11 (56), p.35695-3572
Main Authors: Zhang, Wenchang, Xia, Yu, Wen, Zhaotong, Han, Wenxia, Wang, Shaofu, Cao, Yiping, He, Rong-Xiang, Liu, Yumin, Chen, Bolei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adsorbed water
Adsorption
Carbon nanotubes
Chemistry
Cold weather
Cotton
Ionic liquids
Irradiation
Low temperature
New technology
Photothermal conversion
Solar energy
Sorbents
Water
Water yield
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Summary:Solar energy-powered adsorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (ABAWH) is an emerging technology for freshwater production, especially in water-scarce regions that are remote and landlocked. Numerous water adsorbents have been used in ABAWH devices to convert molecule to liquid water. However, it is still challenging to harvest water from the air in cold winter, owing to the water adsorption of sorbents decreasing significantly at low temperature. Herein, we designed and fabricated an ABAWH device by integrating composited ionic liquids (CILs) with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) photothermal materials on the surface of cotton rod fibers. CILs extract water from the air. CNTs enable light-to-heat conversion and drive the solar evaporation process. Importantly, the cotton rods offer a backbone porous structure to maintain its internal temperature at 20 °C under solar irradiation, and thus promote the water adsorption performance of CILs at low environmental temperature. Freshwater is successfully harvested under environment temperature of 6 °C, 30% RH and solar irradiation intensity of 0.6 kW m −2 . The water yield can achieve 1.49 kg per m 2 per day in an outdoor environment. We believe that the ABAWH device offers a promising approach to effectively harvest water from the air at low temperature and humidity conditions. A photothermal cotton rod is designed for the enhanced atmospheric water absorption and solar evaporation for freshwater production in cold climates.
ISSN:2046-2069
2046-2069
DOI:10.1039/d1ra06987j