So is this essentially just a non-mechanical dehumidifier? How is there enough water to pluck, when the point of an arid climate is that it's... well, arid? The air is usually as dry as the ground in those places. Or so I thought.
"The team developed a low-cost gel film made of abundant materials that can pull water from the air in even the driest climates. The materials that facilitate this reaction cost a mere $2 per kilogram, and a single kilogram can produce more than 6 liters of water per day in areas with less than 15% relative humidity and 13 liters in areas with up to 30% relative humidity."
Doesn't seem like this would be used for agriculture at scale - but it sure could beat digging a well to get water for a house.
"The salt mentioned is not table salt, but lithium chloride. Lithium chloride - which makes up a half by weight of the film, and is also in obvious demand for batteries, is $70/kg or so in bulk."
I haven't really dug in deep myself, but this is the comment that deflated me when reading about this yesterday, so worth looking into at least imo
The ground isn’t all that dry, you can dig a hole, cover it with plastic and get enough water through evaporation/ condensation to hopefully not die of dehydration if you get stranded in the desert.
Something like this would be very helpful for troops in the desert since water is heavy and resupply is very critical to keep up combat readiness. Back when I was a “speed bump in the sand” they drove us out into choke points in the Saudi desert to take out a few Iraqi tanks before they overran us in case of invasion. Assuming we were able to somehow escape contact our mission was to then try to make it to the coast and steal a boat through we probably wouldn’t have had enough water to accomplish the second part. Not even exaggerating a little bit, such is the life of a paratrooper.