Efficient and scalable atmospheric water harvesting in arid climate enabled by thin polyampholyte hydrogel layer

Efficient and scalable atmospheric water harvesting in arid climate enabled by thin polyampholyte hydrogel layer | 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 Efficient and scalable atmospheric water harvesting in arid climate enabled by thin polyampholyte hydrogel layer Tao He, Wan-Chuan Xu, Wei-Wei Fang, Lin-Xin Fan, Bin Xia, Yi-Feng Li, and 17 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8698569/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 Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) is a promising strategy to alleviate global water scarcity. However, the practical application of SAWH is hindered by the low water production efficiency of sorbent, especially in arid climate. This limitation results from sluggish sorption-desorption kinetics, a consequence of the long transport path required for vapor and liquid water due to sorbent stacking. Herein, we report a thin hygroscopic polyampholyte hydrogel layer on a solid porous substrate, which greatly mitigate stacking. The development dramatically improves the sorption-desorption kinetics, which allows 61 sorption-desorption cycles per day in an arid climate and results in 33.3 L kg -1 theoretical freshwater collection within 24 h (30% RH). Besides, the strategy demonstrates remarkable scalability—even at a hundred-gram scale, the hydrogel layer can stably produce 1.16 L of water per day (10.5 L kg⁻¹ day⁻¹) in the dry, cold winters of central China (12.4 ℃, 70.4% RH). Our work provides a promising solution to mitigate the severe water crisis in arid climate. Physical sciences/Materials science/Soft materials/Gels and hydrogels Physical sciences/Materials science/Soft materials/Polymers Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files supplementarytext.pdf Supplementary text VideoS1.mp4 Video S1 VideoS2.mp4 Video S2 VideoS3.mp4 Video S3 VideoS4.mp4 Video S4 VideoS5.mp4 Video S5 VideoS6.mp4 Video S6 VideoS7.mp4 Video S7 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. 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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-8698569","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":595600970,"identity":"f77aea5e-92a9-478e-9112-e98fae73c313","order_by":0,"name":"Tao 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layer","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature 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However, the practical application of SAWH is hindered by the low water production efficiency of sorbent, especially in arid climate. This limitation results from sluggish sorption-desorption kinetics, a consequence of the long transport path required for vapor and liquid water due to sorbent stacking. Herein, we report a thin hygroscopic polyampholyte hydrogel layer on a solid porous substrate, which greatly mitigate stacking. The development dramatically improves the sorption-desorption kinetics, which allows 61 sorption-desorption cycles per day in an arid climate and results in 33.3 L kg\u003csup\u003e-1\u003c/sup\u003e theoretical freshwater collection within 24 h (30% RH). Besides, the strategy demonstrates remarkable scalability—even at a hundred-gram scale, the hydrogel layer can stably produce 1.16 L of water per day (10.5 L kg⁻¹ day⁻¹) in the dry, cold winters of central China (12.4 ℃, 70.4% RH). Our work provides a promising solution to mitigate the severe water crisis in arid climate.","manuscriptTitle":"Efficient and scalable atmospheric water harvesting in arid climate enabled by thin polyampholyte hydrogel layer","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-25 00:36:42","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8698569/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":"2d0675a0-302c-408d-9794-ce9d97ee09d4","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 25th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":63373324,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science/Soft materials/Gels and hydrogels"},{"id":63373325,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science/Soft materials/Polymers"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-05T13:40:18+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-25 00:36:42","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8698569","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8698569","identity":"rs-8698569","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}