Wang Hongmin, Yang Haoru, Woon Reagan, Lu Yang, Diao Yifan, D'Arcy Julio M
Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
Institute of Material Science & Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Jul 28;13(29):34671-34678. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c04631. Epub 2021 Jun 8.
Atmospheric water harvesting is a promising technology for alleviating global water scarcity. Current water sorption materials efficiently capture water vapor from ubiquitous air; however, they are difficult to scale up due to high costs, complex device engineering, and intensive energy consumption. Fired red brick, a low-cost masonry construction material, holds the potential for developing large-scale functional architectures. Here, we utilize fired red brick for atmospheric water harvesting by integrating a microtubular coating of the conducting polymer PEDOT within its inorganic microstructure. This microtubular polymer coating affords hygroscopicity and high surface area for water nucleation, enables capillary forces to promote water transport, and enhances the water harvesting efficiency. Our brick composite achieves a maximum water vapor uptake of ∼200 wt % versus polymer mass at 95% relative humidity, decreasing to ∼15 wt % at 40% relative humidity. Facile water release is demonstrated thermal, electrical, and illuminative heating. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the potential of masonry construction materials for large-scale atmospheric water harvesting.
大气水收集是一种缓解全球水资源短缺的很有前景的技术。目前的吸水材料能够有效地从无处不在的空气中捕获水蒸气；然而，由于成本高、设备工程复杂以及能源消耗大，它们难以扩大规模。烧红砖是一种低成本的砖石建筑材料，具有开发大规模功能结构的潜力。在这里，我们通过在烧红砖的无机微观结构中整合导电聚合物PEDOT的微管涂层，将其用于大气水收集。这种微管聚合物涂层具有吸湿性和高表面积，有利于水的成核，能够借助毛细作用力促进水的传输，并提高水收集效率。我们的砖复合材料在95%相对湿度下相对于聚合物质量的最大水蒸气吸收率约为200 wt%，在40%相对湿度下降至约15 wt%。通过热、电和光照加热都证明了水的轻松释放。这项概念验证研究证明了砖石建筑材料用于大规模大气水收集的潜力。
