Abstract
Solar-driven atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) holds significant promise for decentralized water supply. However, its widespread application is hindered by two critical limitations: underutilization of high-humidity adsorption windows during nighttime and insufficient desorption during daytime due to the high desorption temperature requirement of conventional sorbents. To overcome these challenges, this study proposes a composite sorbent strategy by synergistically combining the low enthalpy of vaporization of LiCl with the robust adsorption capacity and stability of a metal‒organic framework (MOF, specifically Ni2Cl2(BTDD), H2BTDD = bis(1H−1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-b],[4′,5′-i])dibenzo[1,4]dioxin). This design leverages the complementary properties to achieve lower desorption temperatures (e.g., < 60 oC in device level) compared to typical MOF-based systems (usually >90 oC in device level), thereby significantly reducing the energy consumption for desorption. Concurrently, the composite exhibits extended adsorption duration within the high-humidity window. Field validation across diverse climatic regions demonstrates the composite’s exceptional wide-range environmental stability and performance. The resulting SAWH device achieves a solar-to-water generation improvement up to 91% in a continental field test. This work presents a generalizable and effective pathway for enhancing SAWH performance through synergistic material engineering, enabling efficient water production and thermal control under varying environmental conditions.
Data availability
The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information files. Source data are available from the corresponding authors upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Nos. 524B2093, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China Nos. 22231012 and 22475240.
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R.W., J.P.Z., and D.D.Z. supervised and led this research. Z.S., X.F., and H.W. designed the experiments and processed the data. S.D., X.F., W.Y.S., Z.S.W., B.J., and H.L. performed experiments. P.P. revised the article. D.D.Z. and R.W. revised the article and optimized the experimental process. All authors discussed the experiments and results.
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Shao, Z., Feng, X., Poredoš, P. et al. Synergistic MOF-based composite enabling significant solar-to-water generation enhancement in climate-resilient AWH. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68946-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68946-8
