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Updated: Dec 22, 2025

Vegetated Treatment Systems for Removing Contaminants Associated with Surface Water Toxicity in Agriculture and Urban Runoff
Published on: May 15, 2017
MOF water harvesters
Nikita Hanikel1,2,3, Mathieu S Prévot1,2,3, Omar M Yaghi4,5,6,7
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.
Abstract:
The advancement of additional methods for freshwater generation is imperative to effectively address the global water shortage crisis. In this regard, extraction of the ubiquitous atmospheric moisture is a powerful strategy allowing for decentralized access to potable water. The energy requirements as well as the temporal and spatial restrictions of this approach can be substantially reduced if an appropriate sorbent is integrated in the atmospheric water generator. Recently, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been successfully employed as sorbents to harvest water from air, making atmospheric water generation viable even in desert environments. Herein, the latest progress in the development of MOFs capable of extracting water from air and the design of atmospheric water harvesters deploying such MOFs are reviewed. Furthermore, future directions for this emerging field, encompassing both material and device improvements, are outlined.
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