‘Our technology will have application in any region’

A new nanomaterial is turning air into drinking water, and it’s doing it faster and cheaper than ever before.

The study, conducted by a global team of scientists, found the newly developed material can hold more than three times its weight in water and can extract moisture from the air far faster than existing technologies. 

That combination could make a real difference. According to Science, 2.2 billion people around the world lack safe, reliable access to drinking water.

“Our technology will have application in any region where we have sufficient humidity but limited access to or availability of clean potable water,” lead researcher Rakesh Joshi from the University of New South Wales said.

The nanomaterial is based on graphene oxide, a single-atom-thick carbon material already known for its moisture-adsorbing properties. But it’s enhanced by a creative twist: scientists interlaced it with calcium ions to strengthen its hydrogen bonding ability. 

That seemingly small change dramatically increased the material’s capacity to soak up water.

“It’s like 1+1 equaling more than 2,” said study co-author Xiaojun Ren, adding that the results exceeded what graphene oxide and calcium could do alone.

To top it off, the team built the new material into an aerogel, a featherlight solid riddled with microscopic pores. These pores provide a massive surface area to pull in water vapor, and the aerogel’s sponge-like structure makes it easy to extract the water later by applying only mild heat.

The breakthrough could help unlock one of the most overlooked and underutilized sources of fresh water on Earth: the air around us. 

According to NASA, less than 0.05% of Earth’s water is suspended in the atmosphere, but this still translates to around 13 million gigaliters of potential drinking water.

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With critical climate issues on the rise, tech like this is needed now more than ever. The ability to tap into that resource without relying on expensive, energy-intensive methods is a potential breakthrough for water-scarce communities, especially those in drought-prone regions.

It also offers a promising alternative to some water treatment methods. It can help to reduce wasted resources and pollution from wastewater while creating new pathways to clean and affordable hydration.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen similar tech, either. Researchers at the National University of Singapore worked on a similar aerogel-based prototype in 2024. The technology is still in development, but industry partners are already working to scale it up and test a prototype.

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