Water from desert air with MOFs
A metal-organic framework soaks up water vapor from the air at night. In the day, sunlight warms it so it lets the water go, and the water is condensed and collected, with no power but the sun.
University of California, 14 June 2018How far from your life: Could reach you in a few years if the tests go well.
Independently sourcedFrom lab to your life
Why it’s on step 3
- 1Lab discovery
- 2Working prototype
- 3Real-world testing
- 4Approved or on sale
- 5Everyday life
The rule
Tested in people in a clinical trial, in real conditions in a field or road trial, or delivered as samples to named customers.
- UC Berkeley researchers tested a prototype harvester in a backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona, where humidity fell as low as 8% in the day, and collected drinkable water each day-night cycle. University of California, 14 June 2018
The short version
What you need to know
- Why it matters
Drinking water from dry desert air, powered only by sunlight.
University of California, 14 June 2018- Is it really nano?
Truly nano
It works because the material is riddled with tiny channels: a sugar-cube-sized piece can hold an internal surface the size of six football fields.
University of California, 14 June 2018- Who’s behind it
UC Berkeley (Omar Yaghi's group) and others
On the record
Every step, dated
Newest first. Company-reported means the only source so far is the company itself.
- On the record
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for metal-organic frameworks named harvesting water from desert air among their uses.
Nobel Prize press release, 8 Oct 2025 - Field trial
UC Berkeley researchers tested a prototype harvester in a backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona, where humidity fell as low as 8% in the day, and collected drinkable water each day-night cycle.
University of California, 14 June 2018
Sources
Where every line comes from
Each source with the passage, word for word, that backs what we wrote.
- University of California, 14 June 2018
using a MOF that absorbs water during the night and,
- Nobel Prize press release, 8 Oct 2025
These constructions, metal–organic frameworks, can be used to harvest water from desert air,
More in Water, air and climate
- Perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cellsStep 4 · On saleA tandem solar cell stacks a thin perovskite cell on top of an ordinary silicon cell.
- Metal-organic frameworks for carbon captureStep 3 · TestingMetal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystals built like scaffolding: metal atoms joined by carbon-based molecules, leaving pores a few nanometers wide inside.