Generating a technology platform for water harvesting from humid air using carbon nanotube-based nanocomposites

使用基于碳纳米管的纳米复合材料构建从潮湿空气中收集水的技术平台

• 批准号: 515111-2017
• 负责人: Meunier, JeanLuc
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Engage Grants Program
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=639446
• 关键词: Generating; technology; platform; water; harvesting

This project involves the development of an innovative strategy for water generation based on the recovery ofatmospheric humidity in the gas phase. It tries to avoid the current hindrances in fog harvesting technologiesbased on the recovery of water micro droplets from fog and clouds, i.e. from very humid air. Achieving a lowcost method able to collect water from ambient air even at low relative humidity (RH), down to around 20%RHin arid regions, would strongly impact many regions of the world particularly in the present climate changeevolution. The proposed idea consists in forcing the water vapor in the air to nucleate heterogeneously intowater droplets on super-hydrophillic surfaces having strongly enhanced surface area, and extracting the waterdroplets using various strategies based on hydrophobicity and porous media. Water generation from humid aircorresponds to typical dehumidification devices. The challenge is however to generate a surface on which theheterogeneous nucleation, i.e. the gas-to-liquid micro-droplet generation, is made to occur under a very smallcooling temperature below the ambient temperature. In other words, a dehumidifier requiring a minimal energyinput. Such conditions were shown by the Plasma Processing Laboratory at McGill University to occur onforests of carbon nanotubes functionalized to full hydrophillicity. Water was shown to be captured, while zonesfunctionalized to be hydrophobic were shown to enable the extraction of water droplets. This collaborationproject focusses on evaluating three potential avenues for the design of water-collecting structures, all threebased on the approach developed by PPL for functionalized forests of carbon nanotubes.

该项目涉及开发基于气相大气湿度恢复的创新水生成策略。它试图避免目前基于从雾和云（即从非常潮湿的空气中）回收水微滴的雾收集技术的障碍。实现一种低成本方法，即使在相对湿度 (RH) 较低（在干旱地区低至 20%RH 左右）的情况下也能从环境空气中收集水，这将对世界许多地区产生强烈影响，特别是在当前的气候变化演变中。所提出的想法包括迫使空气中的水蒸气在表面积大大增加的超亲水表面上异质成核成水滴，并使用基于疏水性和多孔介质的各种策略提取水滴。从潮湿空气中产生水相当于典型的除湿装置。然而，挑战在于生成一个表面，在该表面上，在低于环境温度的非常小的冷却温度下发生异质成核，即气液微滴的生成。换句话说，除湿机需要最小的能量输入。麦吉尔大学的等离子体处理实验室表明，这种情况发生在功能化为完全亲水性的碳纳米管森林上。水被证明被捕获，而功能化为疏水性的区域被证明能够提取水滴。该合作项目重点评估集水结构设计的三种潜在途径，这三种途径均基于 PPL 为功能化碳纳米管森林开发的方法。