Hygroscopic LiCl@MOF‐Grafted Fibrous Mats for Scalable Solar‐Powered Atmospheric Water Harvesting

Abstract

Abstract Solar‐induced sorption‐desorption based atmospheric water harvesting (SSDAWH) has emerged as a promising technology to mitigate global water scarcity through moisture capture across broad relative humidity (RH) ranges using advanced sorbents. While metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have demonstrated exceptional potential in water capture applications, their practical implementation faces two critical challenges: the persistent gap between laboratory research and field deployment, and sluggish desorption kinetics that severely constrain SSDAWH system efficiency. To address these limitations, a novel MOF‐303‐LiCl composite integrated with reactive black dye‐grafted fibrous mats (LiCl@MOF‐chelated black viscose nonwoven mat, LMBVNM) is developed, creating a photothermal sorbent platform that enables rapid and complete moisture cycling. This engineered architecture achieves dual functionality: the fibrous mats substrate provides mechanical stability and mass transport channels for practical device integration, while the MOF‐303‐LiCl/dye system synergistically enhances both moisture capture capacity and solar‐driven release kinetics. The system demonstrates exceptional performance with a record adsorption capacity of 4.95 g water ·g adsorbent −1 at 90% RH combined with 98.2% water recovery within 20 min under 1 sun illumination. Although MOF‐303 is well‐known in the materials community, the innovation lies in incorporating MOF‐303 into reactive black dye‐grafted commercial fibrous mats, paves the way for the large‐scale practical application of MOFs in atmospheric water harvesting.

Topics & Concepts