10.1021/acs.iecr.8b06092.s001 Xiaopeng Liu Xiaopeng Liu Zhang Chen Zhang Chen Guang Yang Guang Yang Yanfeng Gao Yanfeng Gao Bioinspired Ant-Nest-Like Hierarchical Porous Material Using CaCl<sub>2</sub> as Additive for Smart Indoor Humidity Control American Chemical Society 2019 CaCl 2 Bioinspired Ant-Nest-Like Hierarchical Porous Material RH performance water vapor humidity control material 2019-04-02 17:46:16 Journal contribution https://acs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Bioinspired_Ant-Nest-Like_Hierarchical_Porous_Material_Using_CaCl_sub_2_sub_as_Additive_for_Smart_Indoor_Humidity_Control/7940336 Inspired by the functional microstructure of the ant nest, a humidity control material was prepared by the sintering of modified low-grade sepiolite. A hierarchical porous structure accelerates the diffusion of water vapor. Meanwhile, CaCl<sub>2</sub> was applied subtly to enhance absorption/desorption of water vapor in response to the change of air relative humidity. The water vapor adsorption–desorption content reaches 550 g·m<sup>–2</sup> with a steady performance after 10 cycles. The flexural strength of the specimen is excessive, 10 MPa. Furthermore, two model houses were used to evaluate the performance of the material in a real environment. The result indicated that it could narrow indoor humidity fluctuation by more than 10% RH spontaneously and mainly maintained the humidity within a healthy range (RH 40–70%) without energy consumption. This invention makes it possible for large-scale fabrication of this material in terms of wall bricks for smart indoor humidity control.