posted on 2024-01-06, 14:29authored byMengchun Wu, Yunpeng Zhou, Sara Aleid, Xiaodan Tang, Yuyan Zhao, Renyuan Li, Peng Wang
Solar-driven
sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH)
is an emerging freshwater production technology for alleviating increasing
water scarcity. However, existing water vapor sorbents typically suffer
from environmentally unfriendly synthesis processes or components.
The development of efficient SAWH sorbents that are environmentally
compatible is highly demanded but remains a challenge. Herein, a novel,
eco-friendly, and degradable biomass-based SAWH sorbent is developed
for the solar-driven SAWH via a green approach by integrating hygroscopic
choline chloride (ChCl) and photothermal polydopamine into porous
alginate matrices (denoted as D-sorbent). For the first time, biomass-based
ChCl is rationally chosen as the hygroscopic component, which imparts
the D-sorbent with a high water vapor sorption capacity of 0.72 g
g–1 at 25 °C, 80% RH. The D-sorbent exhibits
an ultralow desorption temperature of 35 °C at which ∼99%
of sorbed water can be released. In addition, the D-sorbent shows
highly stable water vapor sorption and solar-driven desorption performance
after repeated use and recycling. More importantly, the D-sorbent
is fully made of biomass resources, which can be completely degraded
into nontoxic substances in the soil, avoiding the environmental burdens
otherwise caused by the out-of-service sorbents.