Scientists from Australia and China have created a sponge-like device that pulls clean water from air using only sunlight.
Researchers from Australia and China have designed a smart spongy device capable of capturing water from thin air and releasing it in a cup using the sun’s energy, with impressive performance even in dry climates where most other systems fail.
The innovative water-from-air device uses a sponge-like material made from modified balsa wood – the lightest and softest commercial hardwood timber – enhanced with salts, nanoparticles, and a carbon nanotube layer. Derek Hao, PhD, a materials scientists and environmental engineer at Australia’s RMIT University, and one of the study’s co-authors, revealed that the material absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, and using solar energy, releases the collected water directly into a cup.The device achieved an impressive water collection efficiency of up to 94 percent in outdoor testing. It additionally remained effective across a broad range of environmental conditions, including humidity levels ranging from 30 to 90 percent, and temperatures between 41 and 131 degrees Fahrenheit. This, according to the senior researcher, further highlights its potential for use in off-grid and disaster-stricken areas.A solar-driven water cycleIn a bid to address the global challenge of access to safe drinking water, the team, including scientists from five Chinese research institutions, drew inspiration from the natural porosity of wood, enhancing it with smart materials to engineer a device that captures water more efficiently than most existing technologies, all powered solely by sunlight.“Our team has invented a device comprising wood’s spongy scaffolding, lithium chloride, iron oxide nanoparticles, a carbon nanotube layer and other specialised features,” Hao emphasized, adding that they also used AI to optimize the material’s performance under varying environmental conditions.Derek Hao, PhD, from RMIT University, holds the team’s spongy wood-based composite material that can absorb water from the atmosphere. Credit: Shu Shu Zheng, RMIT UniversityThe device operates in a simple yet effective cycle. With the cup’s dome lid open, the sponge absorbs airborne moisture. When closed and exposed to sunlight, the material heats up and releases the collected water into the container below. Hao revealed that the sponge absorbed about two milliliters of water per gram and released nearly all of it within 10 hours during lab tests carried out at 90 percent humidity. The prototype consists of nine sponge cubes, each weighing 0.8 grams, yielded 15 milliliters of water per harvesting cycle.The invention with a sponge-like material, developed by researchers in Australia and China, absorbs water from the atmosphere and then releases it in a cup using the sun’s energy. Credit: Shu Shu Zheng, RMIT UniversityIn outdoor tests, it captured 2.5 milliliters per gram overnight and released most of it during the day. “At 30 percent humidity, our device absorbed water at about 0.6 milliliters per gram,” Junfeng Hou, PhD, a professor at the Zhejiang A&F University and co-lead researcher, . “These results highlight its potential use in off-grid, solar-driven water harvesting systems.”Meanwhile, using natural wood as the base material helped lower costs while also offering strong structural support and improving water movement thanks to its porous structure. Because of this and its stable performance over 10 cycles with under 12 percent efficiency loss, the researchers see strong potential for large-scale use in remote or arid regions.Affordable, biodegradable, and scalableHao stressed that the device, despite being small, could be ideal for emergency situations, such as natural disasters that disrupt water supplies, provided the team can scale up and optimize the modular design. “The current demonstration unit size is 15 cubic millimeters,” Hao said. “It would be very easy to prepare a larger unit, or we can use the units to form an array.”According to Hou, the device continued to function after being stored at – 4 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 days, demonstrating freeze resistance, and maintained stable performance over repeated use with minimal efficiency loss.With nine sponge cubes, each weighing 0.8 grams, 15 milliliters of water can be absorbed from the atmosphere. Credit: Shu Shu Zheng, RMIT UniversityThe team is now in discussions with industry partners to scale up production and integrate the sponge system into larger, solar-powered arrays. They’re also considering integrating IoT sensors – hardware components that measure variables like temperature, pressure and motion – to automate the process based on real-time environmental conditions.“Solar panels combined with thermal energy storage could enable round-the-clock operation, particularly in areas with intermittent sunlight,” Hao concluded in a press release.The study has been published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
Innovation Nanotechnology Physics Reseach Science Solar Sponge Sunlight Water Water Purification
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