Sulfurous Polymers for Enhanced atmospheric Water harvesting

The scarcity of clean water is currently a major environmental issue, only increasing in severity in the coming years. Population growth and natural disasters contribute to a decrease in the available water for human consumption. While clean water sources such as lakes and rivers are easily accessed in some cases, these geographical features account for only 2.5 % of the clean water on the planet. Conversely, the atmosphere can hold up to 10 times the quantity of clean water. Interest is therefore increasing in the development of new materials that can actively collect water from the atmosphere and release it cleanly. Materials such as these would allow for the rapid collection of clean water in areas of natural or human disaster e.g. earthquake sites, war zones etc. Recent research has focussed on the production of sulfonated hypercrosslinked polymers (SHCPs); porous materials that are easily produced and actively collect water. The research conducted in this project will combine these SHCPs with knowledge of sulfur chemistry. Sulfur, a waste product from crude oil processing, can form polymers with vastly differing and interesting properties for a range of applications. Indeed, the principal investigator (PI) has recently demonstrated how hydrophobic sulfur can enhance the hydrophilicity of polymer materials, and has gained an understanding of how this element, known for thousands of years, can demonstrate new applications to counter modern day problems. Using knowledge from the PI and Universität Wien a new brand of SHCPs will be designed to enhance their water collecting properties, applying sulfur chemistry to confer biodegradability, antimicrobial, and water cleaning characteristics. The scalability and stability of these materials will be assessed, as will their recyclability. This project seeks to use green chemistry, utilising waste materials, to prepare environmentally friendly polymers to counter environmental problems. This project aims to create a springboard to increase global interest in polymers for atmospheric water harvesting.