Today we bring you a story from Johns Hopkins University where scientists have discovered materials that can collect huge amounts of water from the surrounding air.
If this narrative sounds familiar, that’s because we’ve written about other companies and scientists that have created harvesters that use a metal-organic framework (MOF) to produce water. But whereas earlier iterations of harvesters manage to produce a little over a liter of water per day per kilogram of MOF, the Johns Hopkins harvester easily surpasses this threshold, producing 8.66 liters (2.3 gallons) of water per day per kilogram of MOF.
To create this better-performing new version, the team studied 10 different types of MOFs, examining which properties made them more effective. They also investigated how different environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity, affected their ability to absorb water vapor. From California to Australia, there are plenty of dry climates in desperate need for new sources of water. This new and improved harvester could just be the key to give communities the extra supply of water they need.
