Fossil fuels have at all times been the basic driving drive for human society’s financial and technological progress. Nevertheless, their in depth use has severely elevated carbon emissions and environmental air pollution [1], [2], [3], whereas exacerbating their shortage resulting from their non-renewability [4], [5]. In the meantime, with the growing international local weather change, inhabitants explosion, and water useful resource air pollution, extra nations and areas face water shortage points. Moreover, the unbalanced distribution of freshwater and vitality, each in time and area, has induced billions individuals worldwide to endure from freshwater and electrical energy shortages [6]. Water useful resource shortages and vitality crises have thus grow to be international points threaten human life, well being, and the sustainable growth of society and the financial system [7], [8], [9]. On this context, there was growing consideration to gathering and changing environmental vitality[10].
With the speedy growth of supplies science, particularly the rise of nanotechnology, many new vitality assortment applied sciences have been developed. These applied sciences extensively make the most of the huge vitality sources within the setting, enabling environment friendly electrical energy era. For instance, photo voltaic cells and wind turbines have been efficiently developed, which convert ubiquitous photo voltaic and wind vitality into immediately usable electrical energy, offering comfort for day by day actions [11], [12]. Nevertheless, they often rely on particular climatic and geographical environments. Furthermore, the required tools and infrastructure investments are excessive. As a clear and renewable pure useful resource, water is indispensable for all times and is the most important vitality service on Earth [13], [14], [15], [16]. Thus, successfully using the large vitality in water sources is critical for fixing the urgent international vitality disaster. Varied energy era strategies primarily based on water sources have attracted widespread consideration and are well-developed [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23]. Nevertheless, most of those energy era strategies depend on the gravity and kinetic vitality of liquid water as an influence provide supply and still have limitations, akin to requiring periodic water supplementation, dependence on geographical environments, and excessive prices [24].
The environment accommodates a big quantity of water and holds a lot vitality. Nevertheless, it has lengthy been uncared for as a distributed water supply [25]. Latest analysis has discovered that 12.9 trillion tons of freshwater, within the type of water molecules and water vapor, are saved within the environment, accounting for about 10 % of the Earth’s complete freshwater sources [26], [27]. Due to this fact, atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) is a promising technique to beat water useful resource shortages [28], resulting from its widespread distribution, steady supply, low value, and environmental pollution-free traits, which additionally make it appropriate for software in arid and even desert areas [29], [30]. Consequently, it has grow to be a sizzling analysis subject in recent times [25], [31], [32]. Mainstream atmospheric water harvesting applied sciences embrace fog water harvesting and sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (SAWH) [33], [34], [35], [36]. Fog water harvesting expertise immediately collects small water droplets from the environment, providing a easy and low-cost water harvesting methodology. Impressed by pure organisms, such because the Namib desert beetle and cactus, researchers have carried out quite a few research starting from mono-or bi-mimetic buildings to multi-coupling buildings over the previous few a long time, which have promoted the event of fog water harvesting expertise [37], [38]. SAWH primarily captures free water molecules within the environment utilizing adsorptive supplies, offering a more practical technique for AWH with out time and area limitations. Particularly with the event of a lot of nanomaterials, together with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) [39], hygroscopic salts [40], and polymer-gel-based supplies [41], analysis on AWH has accelerated [42], additional selling the speedy growth and software of SAWH. It’s price noting that fog water harvesting and SAWH contain vitality enter and conversion in the course of the water harvesting course of. Due to this fact, many researchers have proposed vitality growth and conversion methods using AWH methods, providing novel schemes for addressing the worldwide vitality disaster and water useful resource shortages. This technique can extract freshwater sources from the environment and obtain varied types of vitality conversion and software, together with mechanical, electrical, and chemical vitality, thereby comprehensively using water sources and reaching multi-purpose, scalable, repeatable, and sustainable clear vitality storage and software. Not too long ago, this vitality conversion expertise has shortly grow to be a analysis sizzling spot for assuaging the worldwide vitality disaster, particularly by the mixture of water harvesting and varied energy era applied sciences, to unravel the water and electrical energy shortages in distant areas [43], [44]. Water is mostly electrically impartial on the macroscopic degree. Nevertheless, its distinctive molecular construction makes it liable to buying expenses, thus carefully correlating the 2 sources and indivisibly intertwining them. The connection between water and electrical energy demonstrates the good potential of atmospheric water-electricity conversion [45], [46], [47], [48]. Additional exploration of this course of can optimize water useful resource utilization and supply a theoretical basis for addressing each water shortages and the worldwide vitality disaster.
Presently, many wonderful and complete opinions have summarized the analysis progress of assorted energy era applied sciences primarily based on water sources [49], [50], [51], [52]. Nevertheless, few opinions present complete and in-depth discussions of era applied sciences built-in with the AWH course of. Furthermore, little consideration has been paid to the simultaneous era of AWH and electrical energy. Due to this fact, this assessment briefly introduces the fundamental processes of the 2 most important AWH applied sciences, i.e., fog water harvesting and SAWH. Then, the potential for electrical energy conversion primarily based on the precise processes of AWH is analyzed, and the prevailing modern energy era applied sciences and vitality conversion mechanisms are categorized and summarized. Subsequently, the analysis progress of simultaneous atmospheric water harvesting and electrical energy era is mentioned intimately (Fig. 1). Lastly, the challenges and alternatives confronted by the event of AWH and electrical energy conversion applied sciences are analyzed, and the significance of concurrently reaching AWH and energy era is emphasised. Sure methods are proposed to boost AWH effectivity and increase electrical energy conversion efficiency. This assessment goals to encourage researchers to constantly innovate and discover the sector of AWH and electrical energy conversion, additional selling the widespread software of this expertise, higher addressing the present issues of water useful resource shortages and vitality disaster, and guaranteeing the sustainable growth of future society.
