Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore, 117575, Singapore.
Institute of High Performance Computing, 1 Fusionopolis Way, #16-16 Connexis (North Tower), Singapore, 138632, Singapore.
Adv Mater. 2020 Oct;32(39):e2002936. doi: 10.1002/adma.202002936. Epub 2020 Aug 2.
The earth's atmosphere houses an enormous amount of water, which could be effectively exploited for a plethora of applications. While the development of materials for harnessing this abundant resource has gained impetus in recent years, limited efforts have been devoted to in-depth research on their agricultural applications. Herein, a novel copper(II)-ethanolamine complex (Cu-complex), which has a maximum water uptake of up to 300% and a water production rate of 2.24 g g h under natural sunlight, is reported. As a proof-of-concept application, using this material, a fully automated and self-sustainable solar-powered SmartFarm device is developed. The Cu-complex harvests atmospheric water during the night, stores the adsorbed water within, and efficiently releases the adsorbed water during the day when the device is exposed to sunlight. The water harvesting and irrigation process can be fine-tuned to suit different types of plants and local climates for an optimal cultivation. With the SmartFarm in operation, the demand for freshwater for irrigation could be greatly reduced and urban farming techniques such as large-scale rooftop farming could be promoted with a view of alleviating both water and food scarcity in the near future.
地球的大气层中蕴藏着大量的水，这些水可以被有效地开发利用，用于多种用途。尽管近年来人们为开发利用这一丰富资源的材料投入了大量的努力，但对其农业应用的深入研究却相对较少。在此，我们报告了一种新型的铜（II）-乙醇胺配合物（Cu-配合物），它在自然阳光下的最大水吸收量高达 300%，水生成速率为 2.24 g g h。作为概念验证应用，我们使用这种材料开发了一种全自动、自持续的太阳能驱动的 SmartFarm 设备。该 Cu-配合物在夜间收集大气中的水分，将吸附的水分储存在内部，并在白天将其暴露在阳光下时有效地释放吸附的水分。可以根据不同类型的植物和当地气候对水的收集和灌溉过程进行微调，以实现最佳的种植效果。随着 SmartFarm 的运行，灌溉所需的淡水需求将大大减少，并且可以推广大规模的屋顶农业等城市农业技术，以期在不久的将来缓解水和粮食短缺问题。
