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High-Yield Bioinspired Atmospheric Water Capture Through Hydrogels, Yiwei Gao

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Water scarcity is a global issue affecting billions of people, and atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology has been identified as a potential solution. However, existing single-material AWH approaches have limited water harvesting yields due to alternated water capture, storage, and release stages, and only function within a high relative humidity range. In my doctoral research project, we developed a bio-inspired, hydrogel-based multi-layer AWH approach that allows for segregated capture, storage, and release stages, and is envisioned to have higher daily water harvesting efficiency even in low-humidity areas. My research began with understanding the relations between hydrogel mechanical stiffness, hydraulic permeability, …