Spontaneous Dropwise Wicking for Scalable Integration of Salt-Loaded Nanoporous Sorbents

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Energy Storage

Background:

• Salt-loaded nanoporous solids offer high water uptake for atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) and thermal energy storage (TES).
• Integrating these powdered materials into robust, functional devices is a major challenge for practical applications.
• Current methods lack efficiency and control, hindering scalable device development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel method for integrating salt-loaded sorbents into mechanically stable substrates.
• To create high-performance sorbent modules for AWH and TES applications.
• To establish a predictive modeling framework for optimizing the integration process.

Main Methods:

• Developed a dropwise-wicking (Dropwick) methodology for controlled sorbent integration into porous metal foams.
• Established a physical modeling framework using dimensionless numbers to guide Dropwick operation.
• Experimentally demonstrated the method using salt-loaded hierarchical silica (LiCl@HSPEG).

Main Results:

• Achieved uniform, scalable, and mechanically robust sorbent coatings on metal foams.
• Preserved and even enhanced the intrinsic sorption performance of the integrated materials.
• Demonstrated the predictive power of the physical modeling framework for Dropwick optimization.

Conclusions:

• The Dropwick method provides a versatile strategy for fabricating high-performance sorbent modules.
• This approach effectively bridges material properties with device requirements for AWH and TES.
• The developed methodology enables scalable and durable sorbent integration for advanced energy systems.