Engineers find the hydrogel polyethylene glycol (PEG) doubles its water absorption as temperatures climb from 25 to 50 C, and could be useful for passive cooling or water harvesting in warm climates.

Super absorbent polymers (SAPs) have quietly become one of the most influential material innovations of the modern era. Known for their extraordinary ability to absorb and retain large amounts of ...

The gel material is cheap to make, and a single kilogram can produce liters of water in seemingly dry conditions. Reading time 4 minutes As the world becomes increasingly hot, fresh and clean water is ...

Every evening during the summer of 2020, Xingyi Zhou went up to the roof of her lab building at the University of Texas at Austin to check on two plastic boxes containing radish plants. Plants in one ...

When it comes to keeping our kitchens and bathrooms spotless, we often forget about the very area we use daily — the sink. And if there’s one thing I hate when keeping my kitchen sink area organized ...

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. (July 13, 2020) – Providing clean water to Soldiers in the field and citizens around the world is essential, and yet one of the world’s greatest challenges. Now a new ...

Plants may have no muscles, but they can grow upwards against the strain of gravity and their roots can even shift soil and rocks – because their cells can absorb water to form strong structures. Now ...

The vast majority of absorbent materials will lose their ability to retain water as temperatures rise. This is why our skin starts to sweat and why plants dry out in the heat. Even materials that are ...