Scientists project that by 2050, nearly half the global urban population will not have enough potable water – a 50% increase since 2016. New and sustainable methods for desalination are needed, and Cornell researchers have one potential solution – in part inspired by the bird of paradise.
Employing a method of water distillation that harnesses sunlight by heating a body of water’s surface, a group led by Larissa Shepherd, M.S. ’13, Ph.D. ’17, assistant professor in the Department of Human Centered Design, in the College of Human Ecology (CHE), have proven the feasibility of using polydopamine-dyed and ultrablack wool as a low-cost, renewable water-purification method.
“The idea is to use natural materials and use them in a way that will allow areas that don’t necessarily have a lot of infrastructure to be able to generate clean water from salt water,” Shepherd said. “Wool is biodegradable, and we don’t have to worry about microplastics and other things that won’t degrade.”
Kyuin Park, M.S. ’23, Ph.D. ’26, formerly of Shepherd’s Responsive Apparel Design (RAD) Lab, is lead author of “Polydopamine-Wool Textiles for Sustainable Interfacial Solar Vapor Generation,” which published Sept. 6 in Advanced Science.
