An international team of scientists has developed a groundbreaking nanomaterial capable of extracting significant amounts of clean drinking water from air moisture, a potential game-changer for water-scarce regions.
The innovative material, a calcium-enhanced graphene oxide aerogel, can absorb water vapor over three times faster than existing technologies and hold more than three times its own weight in water. This remarkable efficiency was announced by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) on Monday.
\”This stronger-than-expected hydrogen bonding is one of the reasons for the material’s extreme ability to adsorb water,\” said Ren Xiaojun, the study’s first author from UNSW’s School of Materials Science and Engineering.
The project, led by the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation (ARC COE-CSI), included collaboration with Nobel laureate Prof. Kostya Novoselov from the National University of Singapore. The team discovered that introducing calcium ions into graphene oxide created an unexpected molecular synergy. This synergy strengthens hydrogen bonding, enabling significantly higher water adsorption than either component achieves alone.
The aerogel’s nanoporous structure not only accelerates water capture but also allows for low-energy water release at just 50 degrees Celsius. This makes it particularly suitable for regions with limited access to clean water but sufficient humidity.
With 2.2 billion people worldwide lacking safe drinking water, this technology could tap into Earth’s vast atmospheric water reservoir, estimated at 13 million gigaliters. \”Our technology will have application in any region where we have sufficient humidity but limited access to or availability of clean potable water,\” said Associate Professor Rakesh Joshi from UNSW.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), combined experimental and theoretical approaches, utilizing advanced simulations on Australia’s National Computational Infrastructure supercomputer in Canberra.
Industry partners across Australia, China, Japan, Singapore, and India are now working to scale up the technology, aiming to bring this promising solution to the regions that need it most.
