Across the globe, nearly four billion people do not have access to clean water, according to UNICEF. That’s two-thirds of the global population.

While poverty, injustice, and environmental impacts are at the heart of this issue, scientists also hope to bring innovation to the water scarcity crisis, ensuring that people have access to the vital necessities of life.

A team of researchers has developed a new crystalline material that can harvest water from fog without any energy input.

The researchers, from Jilin University, NYU Abu Dhabi’s Smart Materials Lab, and the Center for Smart Engineering Materials, were inspired by desert flora and fauna, which survive in arid conditions with the help of surface structures that capture moisture from the air to be processed through their bodies.

These structures have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties. Water is attracted to hydrophilic areas, and droplets accumulate and are transported through hydrophobic areas. So, researchers were curious: Outside of desert beetles and lizards, could this be replicated?

Well, their findings have now been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. In their research, they chose three chemically versatile organic compounds to grow “elastic organic crystals.” 

From there, they tested how each of these materials interacted with airborne water, or fog. That’s how they created a new water-collecting material, which they named Janus crystals.

The Janus crystals contain both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions, capturing water from humid air and then collecting that water in a receptacle. 

“The earth’s atmosphere contains an abundance of untapped fresh water, but we desperately need materials that can efficiently capture and collect this humidity and condense it into potable water,” said Professor of Chemistry Pance Naumov, in a statement. 

The crystals did just that. Plus, their narrow and light-translucent bodies made it easy for the researchers to monitor the collection of water and fog droplets in real-time.

Of course, many other methods to get potable water into the hands of people who need it are already in practice. Desalination, for instance, is a widely used method to separate salt from saltwater. However, it is highly energy-intensive.

The Janus crystals, on the other hand, require zero input of energy, which the researchers say could potentially “provide an endless source of clean water.”

Other porous organic crystals have also been studied for this purpose, but the Janus crystals are the most efficient method seen yet, combining both water collection and water delivery at once.

“The crystals developed by our team not only capitalize on the mechanical compliance and optical transparency of organic crystals, but also pave the way for the design of active, self-sensing, and efficient surface-active harvesters,” Naumov explained.

It is unclear what steps may come next in further testing and implementation of the Janus crystals, but Naumov and his team understand the potential they have unlocked.

“When used at a larger scale,” he said, “[This] can help us combat water scarcity at a societal level.”

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Header image courtesy of Linfeng, et al.