The volume of water in the atmosphere is estimated to be about 13,000 trillion L (3,434 trillion gal) 鈥� a natural resource that could address global water scarcity. Existing methods to capture this water require either air at very high relative humidity or a large amount of energy 鈥� making atmospheric water unviable for consumption. A new development by scientists at the Univ. of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) could change that.
鈻� The key ingredient of a new water-harvesting device is MOF-801, a porous metal-organic framework made of zirconium ions (blue) connected by organic linkers (black and red). The MOF traps water molecules (yellow) in its cavities. Image courtesy of the Univ. of California, Berkeley.
鈥淭his is a major breakthrough in the long-standing challenge of harvesting water from the air at low humidity,鈥� says Omar Yaghi, the James and Neeltje Tretter Endowed Chair in Chemistry at UC Berkeley and the Director of the...
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