Carbon/zeolite 13X composition for atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) application in arid regions

To develop atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology, Zeolite 13X (Z) powder was hydrothermally produced with the addition of different grain sizes of carbon black additive (C) to adsorb air moisture at night and release the water adsorbed by solar irradiation during the day. Various characterization techniques were utilized, including X-ray diffractometry, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), UV‒Vis analysis, and a solar simulator, It was determined that the composition of 95%zeolite 13X-5% carbon black with a particle size of ~50 nanometers (ZC55) yielded the best result. The mentioned composition (ZC55) after one hour of exposure under a standard solar simulator flux of 1000 W/m² by bringing the temperature of the composition to 110°C achieved the highest moisture removal in the composite. This compound evaporated 50% of the adsorbed water after one hour (0.15 g/g), from 0.31 g/g sorption capacity.