Thermosensitive Hydrogel Desalinates Water With Sunlight

The TherGel Project, an innovative initiative led by researchers and professors from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC), seeks to develop a sustainable, low-cost technology capable of providing safe drinking water to millions of people worldwide, directly in their homes.

Designed for several applications, the thermosensitive hydrogel they developed has been proven effective in desalinating seawater using solar radiation. It can also be manufactured at home using a preparation kit and reused or recycled.

“The aim is to develop a prototype for water self-purification to be used directly in homes, without the need for electrical sources or pressure equipment, as it would just use solar energy for the regeneration of saline water and the production of drinking water,” said researcher Elaine Armelin.

In the study featured in Advanced Functional Materials, UPC’s research group Innovation in Materials and Molecular Engineering - Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies (IMEM-BRT) detailed how their thermosensitive conductive hydrogel, aptly called solar absorber hydrogel (SAH), functions.

“As water is absorbed by the hydrogel, it rises to the surface and evaporates due to solar radiation. We add nanoparticles of a conductive polymer to this material, giving it a darker black colour, so it absorbs more solar radiation while favouring internal water evaporation. It is a small desalination unit to produce drinking water at home,” explained researcher Joan Torras.

According to their published study, the system could produce 80 to 100kg/square meter of clean water within 24 hours at an evaporation rate of 3.5 to 4.5kg/square meter per hour.

Read the full article here to learn how the hydrogel can be used for other purposes.

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