Cotton Could Be Used to Farm Moisture in the Desert Thanks to Cheap New Polymer
25th January 2013
A new polymer developed at the Eindhoven University of Technology and Hong Kong Polytechnic University could be used to enable cheap cotton to provide water in deserts and other arid regions. Researchers write that at low temperatures, cotton treated with the polymer becomes super-absorbent, and can hold up to 340 percent of its own weight in water (compared to just 18 percent without the polymer). As the treated cotton gets hotter, it automatically releases “totally pure water,” and completely releases all absorbed water as it reaches 34 degrees Celsius.