Asymmetric Hydrophilicity-Driven Fast Water Diffusion Enabling Heterogeneous Hygroscopic Gels toward High-Yield Atmospheric Water Harvest

Asymmetric Hydrophilicity-Driven Fast Water Diffusion Enabling Heterogeneous Hygroscopic Gels toward High-Yield Atmospheric Water Harvest | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Asymmetric Hydrophilicity-Driven Fast Water Diffusion Enabling Heterogeneous Hygroscopic Gels toward High-Yield Atmospheric Water Harvest Peng Xiao, Ruiheng Han, Xianzhang Wu, Yuan Zhu, Weiqing Yang, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7471897/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Hygroscopic polymeric gels hold a promising avenue for sustainable sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH). However, conventional designs relying on homogeneous hydrophilic networks face an inherent trade-off: strong hydrogen bond-mediated water retention and osmotic pressure-driven water transport. Here, we propose a new strategy to construct heterogeneous structure composed of hydrophilic pectin shell and relatively hydrophobic graphene oxide (GO) sheets core for hygroscopic polymeric organgel integrated with glycerol. The pectin shell acts as a gas–liquid conversion interface, enabling continuous and efficient water condensation. The incorporation of pristine GO interlayers significantly reduces the interaction between adsorbed water molecules and hydrophilic functional groups. This unique configuration enhances glycerol-enabled osmotic pumping for rapid water transport into storage and supports efficient solar-driven water release. The resulting organgel exhibits a high water uptake capacity ranging from 0.83 to 6.57 g g⁻¹ across a broad relative humidity spectrum (30% to 90%). Under 1.0 sun illumination, it achieves a notable desorption rate of 2.06 kg m⁻² h⁻¹, contributing to a daily water yield of up to 2.86 L water kg sorbent ⁻¹ day⁻¹. This heterogeneous structure challenges the conventional paradigm of maximizing hydrophilicity and opens a new avenue for the rational design of high-performance toward next-generation SAWH materials. Physical sciences/Materials science/Structural materials Physical sciences/Energy science and technology/Energy harvesting Physical sciences/Chemistry/Environmental chemistry/Atmospheric chemistry Physical sciences/Chemistry/Polymer chemistry/Polymer synthesis Physical sciences/Chemistry/Green chemistry/Sustainability heterogeneous structure polymeric gels graphene oxide pectin atmospheric water harvesting Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupportingInformation.docx Supporting Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7471897","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":513250468,"identity":"51439af5-2ccc-441e-9083-cc92ca80bffe","order_by":0,"name":"Peng 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harvesting","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7471897/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7471897/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eHygroscopic polymeric gels hold a promising avenue for sustainable sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH). However, conventional designs relying on homogeneous hydrophilic networks face an inherent trade-off: strong hydrogen bond-mediated water retention and osmotic pressure-driven water transport. Here, we propose a new strategy to construct heterogeneous structure composed of hydrophilic pectin shell and relatively hydrophobic graphene oxide (GO) sheets core for hygroscopic polymeric organgel integrated with glycerol. The pectin shell acts as a gas\u0026ndash;liquid conversion interface, enabling continuous and efficient water condensation. The incorporation of pristine GO interlayers significantly reduces the interaction between adsorbed water molecules and hydrophilic functional groups. This unique configuration enhances glycerol-enabled osmotic pumping for rapid water transport into storage and supports efficient solar-driven water release. The resulting organgel exhibits a high water uptake capacity ranging from 0.83 to 6.57 g g⁻\u0026sup1; across a broad relative humidity spectrum (30% to 90%). Under 1.0 sun illumination, it achieves a notable desorption rate of 2.06 kg m⁻\u0026sup2; h⁻\u0026sup1;, contributing to a daily water yield of up to 2.86 L\u003csub\u003ewater\u003c/sub\u003e kg\u003csub\u003esorbent\u003c/sub\u003e⁻\u0026sup1; day⁻\u0026sup1;. This heterogeneous structure challenges the conventional paradigm of maximizing hydrophilicity and opens a new avenue for the rational design of high-performance toward next-generation SAWH materials.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Asymmetric Hydrophilicity-Driven Fast Water Diffusion Enabling Heterogeneous Hygroscopic Gels toward High-Yield Atmospheric Water Harvest","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-08 04:23:02","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7471897/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-communications","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"NCOMMS","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nature Communications](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://mts-ncomms.nature.com/","title":"Nature Communications","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Nature Communications","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"eb1b092a-70b8-4be9-b703-3f6ee6207395","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 8th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":54526475,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science/Structural materials"},{"id":54526476,"name":"Physical sciences/Energy science and technology/Energy harvesting"},{"id":54526477,"name":"Physical sciences/Chemistry/Environmental chemistry/Atmospheric chemistry"},{"id":54526478,"name":"Physical sciences/Chemistry/Polymer chemistry/Polymer synthesis"},{"id":54526479,"name":"Physical sciences/Chemistry/Green chemistry/Sustainability"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-10-08T04:23:02+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-08 04:23:02","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7471897","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7471897","identity":"rs-7471897","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}