Namib desert beetle inspired special patterned fabric with programmable and gradient wettability for efficient fog harvesting

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2020.05.054

Abstract

Abstract:

Efficient collection of water from fog provides a potential solution to solve the global freshwater shortage problem, particularly in the desert or arid regions. In this work, a flexible and highly efficient fog collector was prepared by mimicking the back exoskeleton structure of the Namib desert beetle. The improved fog collector was constructed by a superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic patterned fabric via a simple weaving method, followed by in-situ deposition of copper particles. Compared with the conventional fog collector with a plane structure, the fabric has shown a higher water-harvesting rate at 1432.7 mg/h/cm², owing to the biomimetic three-dimensional structure, its enhanced condensation performance enabled by the copper coating and the rational distribution of wetting units. The device construction makes use of the widely available textile materials through mature manufacturing technology, which makes it highly suitable for large-scale industrial production.

Key words: Superwettability, Fabric, Copper, Namib desert beetle, Fog harvesting

Zhihua Yu, Huimei Zhang, Jianying Huang, Shuhui Li, Songnan Zhang, Yan Cheng, Jiajun Mao, Xiuli Dong, Shouwei Gao, Shanchi Wang, Zhong Chen, Yaoxing Jiang, Yuekun Lai. Namib desert beetle inspired special patterned fabric with programmable and gradient wettability for efficient fog harvesting[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2021, 61: 85-92.

Figures/Tables 8

Scheme 1. Schematic diagram of weaved fabric structure for a minimum unit (left) and illustration of SHB-SHL fabric (right).

Scheme 2. This schematic diagram showed the whole preperation process for various weaved fabric including (a) the prepation of superhydrophobic yarns, (b) fabrication of various types of fabric as well as (c) copper particles selective deposition on weaved fabric.

Fig. 1. The behavior of the fog droplets when it colloids, decelerates and spreads on a smooth glass sheet (a) and fabric with rough surface (b). One typical droglet was magnified for clear view. The scale bar represents 2 cm and all images have the same scale.

Fig. 2. The effects of copper coating on fog harvesting. (a) The fog harvesting behavior on a SHB-SHL patterned fabric from 0 min to 10 min. After 10 min, the SHB-SHL patterned fabric captured some tiny fog droplets. (b) The fog harvesting behavior on a Cu-SHB-SHL patterned fabric from 0 min to 10 min. After 10 min, the Cu-SHB-SHL patterned fabric captured more tiny fog droplets and some fog droplets grow bigger. (c) and (d) are schematic diagrams of the dynamic collection process of SHB-SHL and Cu-SHB-SHL, respectively. Inserted image is a digital photo of Namib desert beetle (copyright 2001, Nature) [5]. The water in the sprayer was dyed with methyl blue for better viewing. The scale bars are 3 mm.

Fig. 3. (a) Illustration of the moving behavior when the droplet on a surface with two different wettabilities. (b) The distribution of water droplets when water droplets fall on the surface of a fabric with two different wettabilities. (c)-(f) Scheme and condensation dynamics of Cu-SHL, Cu-SHB, Cu-SHL-SHB and Cu-SHB-SHL patterned fabric from 0 min to 60 min. The water in the sprayer was dyed with methyl blue. The scale bars are 2 mm.

Fig. 4. The effects of distribution of different wettabilities on fog harvesting. (a), (b), (c) and (d) are schematic diagrams of the dynamic fog harvesting process of Cu-SHL, Cu-SHB, Cu-SHL-SHB and Cu-SHB-SHL, respectively.

Fig. 5. SEM of the fibers with different treatment processes. (a) Untreated fibers. (b) After PDMS and ZnO coating. (c) The superhydrophilic fibers with in-situ copper deposition. (d) The superhydrophobic fibers after in-situ copper deposition. (e) EDS spectrum and atomic ratio of the Cu-SHL-SHB patterned fabric. (f) Cu distribution on the Cu-SHL-SHB patterned fabric. (g) Digital photo of the Cu-SHB-SHL patterned fabric. The scale bar is 2 mm.

Fig. 6. (a) The lab-made fog harvest device: a fog flow was produced by the humidifier to the prepared samples to harvest water and transport water into the container below. (b) WHR value of all samples. (c) WHW (water harvesting weight) tests of 8 samples during a period of 8 h. (d) WHR on the sample of Cu-SHB-SHL fabric for 10 cycles of fog-harvesting processes. Insets in d are optical WCAs images on the superhydrophobic areas. The size of all samples are 3 cm × 3 cm.

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