IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v6y2023i12d10.1038_s41893-023-01159-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Photocatalytically reactive surfaces for simultaneous water harvesting and treatment

Author

Listed:
  • Ritwick Ghosh

    (ETH Zurich
    Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)

  • Adrien Baut

    (ETH Zurich)

  • Giorgio Belleri

    (ETH Zurich)

  • Michael Kappl

    (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)

  • Hans-Jürgen Butt

    (Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research)

  • Thomas M. Schutzius

    (ETH Zurich
    University of California)

Abstract

Atmospheric water harvesting provides decentralized and sustainable supplies of fresh water in areas away from natural water resources. However, an important challenge is that water sources such as fog are subject to contamination from airborne pollutants, especially near population centres. Here we demonstrate a rationally designed system that can capture fog at high efficiency while simultaneously degrading organic pollutants. At the heart of our design is a wire mesh coated with anatase titanium dioxide nanoparticles embedded in a polymer matrix. Once activated by sunlight, the photoactive titanium dioxide layer decomposes organic molecules such as diesel, even in the absence of sunlight; moreover, the wettability of the mesh surface is engineered to enhance water extraction. In outdoor tests, the device can maintain a good fog harvesting performance as well as a water treatment efficiency of >85%. The continuous production of water with passive purification demonstrated in our study provides an energy-free solution to address water scarcity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ritwick Ghosh & Adrien Baut & Giorgio Belleri & Michael Kappl & Hans-Jürgen Butt & Thomas M. Schutzius, 2023. "Photocatalytically reactive surfaces for simultaneous water harvesting and treatment," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(12), pages 1663-1672, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:6:y:2023:i:12:d:10.1038_s41893-023-01159-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01159-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01159-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-023-01159-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tom Gleeson & Yoshihide Wada & Marc F. P. Bierkens & Ludovicus P. H. van Beek, 2012. "Water balance of global aquifers revealed by groundwater footprint," Nature, Nature, vol. 488(7410), pages 197-200, August.
    2. Johan Rockström & Malin Falkenmark, 2015. "Agriculture: Increase water harvesting in Africa," Nature, Nature, vol. 519(7543), pages 283-285, March.
    3. Yongmei Zheng & Hao Bai & Zhongbing Huang & Xuelin Tian & Fu-Qiang Nie & Yong Zhao & Jin Zhai & Lei Jiang, 2010. "Directional water collection on wetted spider silk," Nature, Nature, vol. 463(7281), pages 640-643, February.
    4. Yao Chen & Mengjiao Xu & Jieya Wen & Yu Wan & Qingfei Zhao & Xia Cao & Yong Ding & Zhong Lin Wang & Hexing Li & Zhenfeng Bian, 2021. "Selective recovery of precious metals through photocatalysis," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 4(7), pages 618-626, July.
    5. Jackson Lord & Ashley Thomas & Neil Treat & Matthew Forkin & Robert Bain & Pierre Dulac & Cyrus H. Behroozi & Tilek Mamutov & Jillia Fongheiser & Nicole Kobilansky & Shane Washburn & Claudia Truesdell, 2021. "Global potential for harvesting drinking water from air using solar energy," Nature, Nature, vol. 598(7882), pages 611-617, October.
    6. Ghosh, Ritwick & Ray, Tapan K. & Ganguly, Ranjan, 2015. "Cooling tower fog harvesting in power plants – A pilot study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 1018-1028.
    7. Hyunho Kim & Sameer R. Rao & Eugene A. Kapustin & Lin Zhao & Sungwoo Yang & Omar M. Yaghi & Evelyn N. Wang, 2018. "Adsorption-based atmospheric water harvesting device for arid climates," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tingxian Li & Minqiang Wu & Jiaxing Xu & Ruxue Du & Taisen Yan & Pengfei Wang & Zhaoyuan Bai & Ruzhu Wang & Siqi Wang, 2022. "Simultaneous atmospheric water production and 24-hour power generation enabled by moisture-induced energy harvesting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Husam A. Almassad & Rada I. Abaza & Lama Siwwan & Bassem Al-Maythalony & Kyle E. Cordova, 2022. "Environmentally adaptive MOF-based device enables continuous self-optimizing atmospheric water harvesting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. He Shan & Chunfeng Li & Zhihui Chen & Wenjun Ying & Primož Poredoš & Zhanyu Ye & Quanwen Pan & Jiayun Wang & Ruzhu Wang, 2022. "Exceptional water production yield enabled by batch-processed portable water harvester in semi-arid climate," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Shao, Zhao & Lv, Haotian & Poredoš, Primož & Su, Shiqiang & Sun, Ruikun & Wang, Hongbin & Du, Shuai & Wang, Ruzhu, 2024. "Scaled solar-driven atmospheric water harvester with low-cost composite sorbent," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    5. Youhong Guo & Weixin Guan & Chuxin Lei & Hengyi Lu & Wen Shi & Guihua Yu, 2022. "Scalable super hygroscopic polymer films for sustainable moisture harvesting in arid environments," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    6. Tashtoush, Bourhan & Alshoubaki, Anas, 2023. "Atmospheric water harvesting: A review of techniques, performance, renewable energy solutions, and feasibility," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    7. Kaijie Yang & Tingting Pan & Nadia Ferhat & Alejandra Ibarra Felix & Rebekah E. Waller & Pei-Ying Hong & Johannes S. Vrouwenvelder & Qiaoqiang Gan & Yu Han, 2024. "A solar-driven atmospheric water extractor for off-grid freshwater generation and irrigation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Huang Wu & Yu Wang & Chun Tang & Leighton O. Jones & Bo Song & Xiao-Yang Chen & Long Zhang & Yong Wu & Charlotte L. Stern & George C. Schatz & Wenqi Liu & J. Fraser Stoddart, 2023. "High-efficiency gold recovery by additive-induced supramolecular polymerization of β-cyclodextrin," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Aparicio, Jesus & Tenza-Abril, Antonio & Borg, Malcolm & Galea, John & Candela, Lucila, 2018. "Agricultural irrigation of vine crops from desalinated and brackish groundwater under an economic perspective. A case study in Siġġiewi, Malta," MPRA Paper 92268, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Sep 2018.
    10. Jayanta Das & A. T. M. Sakiur Rahman & Tapash Mandal & Piu Saha, 2021. "Exploring driving forces of large-scale unsustainable groundwater development for irrigation in lower Ganga River basin in India," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7289-7309, May.
    11. Wang, Wendi & Straffelini, Eugenio & Tarolli, Paolo, 2023. "Steep-slope viticulture: The effectiveness of micro-water storage in improving the resilience to weather extremes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    12. Zhong, Hong & Hu, Yan & Wang, Yuanhao & Yang, Hongxing, 2017. "TiO2/silane coupling agent composed of two layers structure: A super-hydrophilic self-cleaning coating applied in PV panels," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 932-938.
    13. Jérôme Texier & Julio Gonçalvès & Agnès Rivière, 2022. "Numerical Assessment of Groundwater Flowpaths below a Streambed in Alluvial Plains Impacted by a Pumping Field," Post-Print hal-03629140, HAL.
    14. Shiyu Zhou & Xiaoqian Wang & Hanbing Jia & Jiying Liu, 2024. "Optimal Design of Air Treatment for an Adsorption Water-Harvesting System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-19, July.
    15. Fei Li & Jiuyi Zhu & Pengzhan Sun & Mingrui Zhang & Zhenqing Li & Dingxin Xu & Xinyu Gong & Xiaolong Zou & A. K. Geim & Yang Su & Hui-Ming Cheng, 2022. "Highly efficient and selective extraction of gold by reduced graphene oxide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    16. Linghui Peng & Haiyu Wang & Guiying Li & Zhishu Liang & Weiping Zhang & Weina Zhao & Taicheng An, 2023. "Bioinspired artificial spider silk photocatalyst for the high-efficiency capture and inactivation of bacteria aerosols," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    17. Kristina Lindvall & John Kinsman & Atakelti Abraha & Abdirisak Dalmar & Mohamed Farah Abdullahi & Hagos Godefay & Lelekoitien Lerenten Thomas & Mohamed Osman Mohamoud & Bile Khalif Mohamud & Jairus Mu, 2020. "Health Status and Health Care Needs of Drought-Related Migrants in the Horn of Africa—A Qualitative Investigation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-18, August.
    18. Haohao Gu & Kaixin Meng & Ruowei Yuan & Siyang Xiao & Yuying Shan & Rui Zhu & Yajun Deng & Xiaojin Luo & Ruijie Li & Lei Liu & Xu Chen & Yuping Shi & Xiaodong Wang & Chuanhua Duan & Hao Wang, 2024. "Rewritable printing of ionic liquid nanofilm utilizing focused ion beam induced film wetting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    19. Xiukang Wang, 2022. "Managing Land Carrying Capacity: Key to Achieving Sustainable Production Systems for Food Security," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-21, March.
    20. Xueru Guo & Rui Zuo & Li Meng & Jinsheng Wang & Yanguo Teng & Xin Liu & Minhua Chen, 2018. "Seasonal and Spatial Variability of Anthropogenic and Natural Factors Influencing Groundwater Quality Based on Source Apportionment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-19, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:6:y:2023:i:12:d:10.1038_s41893-023-01159-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.