Scalable super hygroscopic polymer films for sustainable moisture harvesting in arid environments

Extracting ubiquitous atmospheric water is a sustainable strategy to enable decentralized access to safely managed water but remains challenging due to its limited daily water output at low relative humidity (≤30% RH). This work reports super hygroscopic polymer films (SHPFs) composed of renewable biomasses and hygroscopic salt, exhibiting high water uptake of 0.64-0.96 g g⁻¹ at 15-30% RH. Konjac glucomannan facilitates the highly porous structures with enlarged air-polymer interfaces for active moisture capture and water vapor transport. Thermoresponsive hydroxypropyl cellulose enables phase transition at a low temperature to assist the release of collected water via hydrophobic interactions. With rapid sorption-desorption kinetics, SHPFs operate 14-24 cycles per day in arid environments, equivalent to a water yield of 5.8-13.3 L kg⁻¹. Synthesized via a simple casting method using sustainable raw materials, SHPFs highlight the potential for low-cost and scalable atmospheric water harvesting technology to mitigate the global water crisis.

Youhong Guo, Weixin Guan, Chuxin Lei, Hengyi Lu, Wen Shi, Guihua Yu