Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati researchers announced on December 8, 2020, that they have invented novel materials that could yield water from humid air.
This is a big breakthrough in water harvesting technology and comes at a time when water scarcity has increased all over the world. Scientists around the world have been trying to collect and conserve water through non-traditional ways.
Associate Professor of Chemistry Department and Centre of Technology at IIT Guwahati, Uttam Manna said that the concept of hydrophobicity or water-repelling nature was used in the water harvesting technique.
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The concept of Hydrophobicity could be easily understood by looking at a lotus leaf. Water usually repels off the lotus leaf because of the layer of trapped air between the leaf and the water droplet.
The Researchers at IIT Guwahati stated that simple hydrophobicity like this could not harvest water from the high humid environment, because of the high moisture content in the air which displaces the trapped air which could cause permanent damage.
To overcome this, the team of researchers at IIT Guwahati used the same concept as that of a pitcher plant. The pitcher plant has a slippery surface that causes the insects to fall into it.
The IIT Guwahati Researchers too used a 'Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surface(s) or SLIPS to increase the performance of water harvesting.
As per the journal of The Royal Society of Chemistry, the research team of IIT Guwahati had successfully applied the concept of SLIPs to harvest the water effectively from air. The team created a patterned hydrophilic or water-attracting SLIP by spraying a porous polymeric material on an A4 paper.
In addition, hydrophilic spots that were chemically modulated were associated with the coating before the lubrication of the surface. Synthetic Krytox and natural olive oil were used for the purpose of lubrication.
The surface thus created, could harvest water from humid air without any cooling requirements. "We have produced a highly efficient water harvesting interface where the fog collecting rate is as high," Manna said.
When compared to other bio-inspired methods of water harvesting, the research team of IIT Guwahati found that their SLIP material showed higher efficiency in water harvesting.
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