A Moisture-Penetrating Humidity Pump Directly Powered by One-Sun Illumination

There is broad demand for humidity control for industrial, commercial, and residential applications. Current humidity pumping technologies require intensive maintenance because of the complexity of their mechanical structures. Furthermore, indirect utilization of solar energy increases both cost and energy loss. Here, we demonstrate a new humidity pumping concept based on multilayer moisture permeable panels. Such panels, with a simple structure, may allow the penetration of moisture from indoor (adsorption) to outdoor (desorption) with little heat loss. One-sun illumination is introduced as the direct energy source. A proof-of-concept prototype is designed and established, successfully dehumidifying indoor air with the best dehumidification rate of 33.8 g⋅m(−2)⋅h(−1). By applying such humidity pump, the indoor latent heat load can be handled independently, without any auxiliary unit, thus consuming no electricity.