(326e) Novel Gel Material for Atmospheric Water Absorbent

An abundant supply of fresh water is one of the leading challenges of the 21th century. As such, significant attention has recently been focused on one’s ability to capture (or scavenge) water directly from the atmosphere. Although a few materials have been reported that can accomplish this feat, in general, they either require large energy consumption or strict environmental conditions (like extremely high relative humidity i.e. fog or mist). Nevertheless, the shortage of water in poor, underdeveloped and outlying areas necessitates simple and inexpensive methods that have yet to be fully realized. In recent work, we have developed a novel gel material for absorption of water from ambient air under a variety of humidity conditions. Moreover, this process is a “passive” one in that no external sources of energy are required to realize the scavenging. In early tests of water absorption, our novel gel shows promising water absorbing capability, absorbing nearly an equal amount of water whether it is placed in a humid environment or directly submersed in liquid water. These preliminary results demonstrate that this material is not only practical for the scavenging of atmospheric water, but also may be applicable to the extraction of other condensable vapors from gas streams.