Wind‐Driven Atmospheric Water Harvesting Enabled by Highly Interconnected Macroporous Hygroscopic Polymer Sponges and Eddy Current Heating

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sorption‐based atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) driven by renewable energy offers a sustainable route for freshwater production in water‐stressed regions; however, its practical deployment is often limited by sluggish sorption kinetics and inefficient renewable energy utilization. Here, a wind‐driven AWH strategy is proposed by integrating a hygroscopic polymer sponge (HPS) with wind‐powered eddy current heating (WECH). The HPS, fabricated via high internal emulsion polymerization (HIPEP), features a highly interconnected macroporous architecture with high porosity and mechanical robustness, providing low‐resistance moisture transport pathways that enable rapid water uptake with fast kinetics and mitigated salt leakage. The incorporation of WECH enables direct conversion of wind kinetic energy into thermal energy with a conversion efficiency exceeding 90%, achieve up to 97.1% water release from saturated HPSs. By coupling HPS with WECH, an integrated system achieves a daily water productivity of 9.9 L H2O kg HPS −1 under ambient conditions (23.7°C–25.8°C, 30.7%–51.7% RH). This work represents the first implementation of HIPEP for constructing HPAs with highly interconnected macroporous architectures tailored for AWH, and the first demonstration of direct wind‐to‐thermal energy utilization for sorbent regeneration. This wind‐driven AWH strategy provides a cost‐effective and sustainable approach for freshwater production through synergistic sorbent design and efficient renewable energy utilization.