Spongy Material and Solar Power Remove Salt from Seawater
(Credits: ACS)
July 2, 2025 – The vast majority of the Earth’s water is found in the oceans and is too salty to drink. Desalination plants can turn seawater into drinking water, but they require a lot of energy. Researchers reporting in ACS Energy Letters have now developed a sponge-like material with long, microscopic air channels that uses sunlight and a simple plastic cover to convert salt water into fresh water. A proof-of-concept outdoor test successfully produced drinking water using natural sunlight — a step toward energy-efficient, sustainable desalination.
The study was published on July 2 in ACS Energy Letters under the title ‘Size-Insensitive Vapor Diffusion Enabled by Additive Freeze-Printed Aerogels for Scalable Desalination’ (DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.5c01233).
