Water is essential to life. It is estimated that by 2050 nearly half of the world population will live in water stressed regions, due to either arid conditions or lack of access to clean water. This Outlook, written for the general readers, outlines the parameters of this vexing societal problem and presents a solution to the global water challenge. There is plenty of water in the air that potentially can be harvested not only from the desert atmosphere where the humidity is low but also from more humid regions of the world where clean water is needed. In principle, the materials used to harvest water from air in these climates should be applicable to deployment anywhere in the world to extract atmospheric water at any time of the year. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as a unique class of porous materials capable of trapping water at relative humidity levels as low as 10%, and doing so with facile uptake and release kinetics. From laboratory testing to field trials in the driest deserts, kilogram quantities of MOFs have been tested in several generations of devices. The initial results of these experiments showed that MOFs could capture water from desert climates and deliver over one liter per kilogram of MOF per day. More than an order of magnitude increase in water productivity could be achieved with members of the MOF family when employed in an electrified device operating at many cycles per day. We show that the vision of having clean water from air anywhere in the world at any time of the year is potentially realizable with MOFs and so is the idea of giving “water independence” to the citizens of the world.

中文翻译：

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随时随地从空中收集水的金属有机框架。

水对生命至关重要。据估计，由于干旱条件或缺乏清洁水的供应，到2050年，世界近一半人口将生活在缺水地区。为广大读者撰写的本《展望》概述了这个令人困扰的社会问题的参数，并提出了应对全球水资源挑战的解决方案。空气中有大量的水，不仅可以从湿度低的沙漠大气中收集，而且可以从需要清洁水的世界上较潮湿的地区中收集。原则上，在这些气候下从空气中收集水的材料应适用于在世界上任何地方部署，以在一年中的任何时候提取大气中的水。金属有机骨架（MOF）已作为一类独特的多孔材料出现，能够在相对湿度低至10％的条件下捕集水分，并且吸收和释放动力学都很容易。从实验室测试到在最干旱的沙漠中进行现场试验，已经在几代设备中测试了千克量的MOF。这些实验的初步结果表明，MOF可以从沙漠气候中捕获水，每天每公斤MOF可以输送一升以上的水。如果将MOF系列的成员用于每天运行许多次的电气化设备中，则MOF系列成员的水生产率可以提高一个数量级以上。