Biomimetic “Cactus Spine” with Hierarchical Groove Structure for Efficient Fog Collection

Bai, Fan; Wu, Juntao; Gong, Guangbi; Guo, Lin

doi:10.1002/advs.201500047

Cited by 100 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…All three parts have different roles in the fog collection process. The efficient fog collection system benefits from the multiple biological structures, and the continuous water‐harvesting can proceed by integrating the gradient of the Laplace pressure, and the gradient of the surface‐free energy …”

Section: Natural Creatures and Mechanisms Of Collecting Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bioinspired Special Wettability Surfaces: From Fundamental Research to Water Harvesting Applications

Zhang

Huang

Chen

et al. 2016

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279

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Nowadays, the pollution of water has become worse in many parts of the world, which causes a severe shortage of clean water and attracts widespread attention worldwide. Bioinspired from nature, i.e. spider silk, cactus, Namib desert beetle, Nepenthes alata, special wettability surfaces have attracted great interest from fundamental research to water-harvesting applications. Here, recently published literature about creatures possessing water-harvesting ability are reviewed, with a focus on the corresponding water-harvesting mechanisms of creatures in dry or arid regions, consisting of the theory of wetting and transporting. Then a detailed account of the innovative fabrication technologies and bionic water-harvesting materials with special wetting are summarized, i.e. bio-inspired artificial spider silk, bio-inspired artificial cactus-like structures, and bio-inspired artificial Namib desert beetle-like surfaces. Special attentions are paid to the discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies, as well as factors that affect the amount of water-harvesting. Finally, conclusions, future outlooks and the current challenges for future development of the water-harvesting technology are presented and discussed.

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Section: Natural Creatures and Mechanisms Of Collecting Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…C) Fog collection test of an artificial spine array which is fixed on a piece of water saturated sponge, and their fog collection ability test of the prepared model cactus. Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2015, Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.…”

Section: The Fabrication and Further Fundamental Research Of Bionic Wmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Special Wettability Surfaces: From Fundamental Research to Water Harvesting Applications

Zhang

Huang

Chen

et al. 2016

Small

279

196

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show abstract

“…

properties assisted in moisture absorption. [7] Inspired by nature, researchers have developed artificial water harvesters, [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] such as water collecting filaments and hydrophobichydrophilic patterned fog collectors. [3][4][5][6] These excellent water harvesting creatures elucidate the critical role of wettability irregularity and hierarchical structure gradient in guiding water transport.

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confidence: 99%

Novel Water Harvesting Fibrous Membranes with Directional Water Transport Capability

Zhou

Wang

et al. 2019

Adv Materials Inter

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properties assisted in moisture absorption. The Namib Desert beetles and Texas horned lizard collect dew using their bumpy body surface with alternating regions of hydrophilic and hydrophobic, and the honeycomb structures on the scale increase condensation foci. [3][4][5][6] These excellent water harvesting creatures elucidate the critical role of wettability irregularity and hierarchical structure gradient in guiding water transport. [7] Inspired by nature, researchers have developed artificial water harvesters, [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] such as water collecting filaments and hydrophobichydrophilic patterned fog collectors. [19][20][21][22] However, most of the water harvesters developed so far are based on either a 2D surface or a 1D filament.Recently, researchers have uncovered that porous membranes with wettability gradient or wettability contrast in thickness direction can have a "smart" directional wicking effect, which enables water to transfer automatically across the membrane just in one direction. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Our previous works have reported the preparation of hydrophobic-to-hydrophilic gradient fabrics that can guide directional water-transport from the hydrophobic to the hydrophilic side. [31,32] Such a unidirectional water penetration phenomenon was also reported by other researchers. In research literatures, the directional water transport was also termed "one-way water transport," "directional wicking," [33][34][35] or "water diode." [36][37][38][39][40] Almost all the directional water transport membranes have a hydrophobic layer on one side and a hydrophilic layer on the other, a typical feature of Janus membranes. However, not all Janus membranes have a directional wicking property because Janus membranes might have bidirectional or nonwicking properties, depending on the hydrophobic/hydrophilic combination layout. [36,38,39] Despite the reports about the preparation and applications of directional wicking porous media, limited attention has been devoted to using them for water harvesting.Herein, we report a novel finding about harvesting water from air using hydrophobic/superhydrophilic directional wicking nanofibrous membranes. A two-step electrospinning method was employed to prepare directional wicking fibrous membranes using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as a starting material. The directional wicking membranes were found to have much larger water harvesting capacity than those with homogeneous wettability and the same fibrous structure. The porous structure and pore dimension also contributed to water harvesting.Previous studies about water harvesting from airborne moisture, which is driven by a directional water transport principle, are based on either a 2D surface or a 1D filament. Porous membranes with a directional water transport capability are seldom used for water harvesting. Herein, a novel hydrophobic/ hydrophilic directional-wicking nanofibrous membrane is reported showing enhanced water harvesting ability. In comparison to the hydrophobic or hy...

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“…[ 13,14 ] Based on these approaches, a series of artifi cial spindle-knotted microfi bers have been generated as potential bionic replications for natural fog-harvesting systems. [15][16][17] However, these approaches have little control over the size and spacing of the spindle-knots, whose features are fundamental for the wettability of the microfi bers. In addition, because of the restricted availability of coated polymer materials, the applications of these microfi bers are inadequate for some areas.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Multifunctional Spindle‐Knotted Microfibers from Microfluidics

Shang

Cheng

et al. 2016

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Heterostructured microfibers with spindle-knots and joints are developed using a novel microfluidic technology, which enables integrative microfiber joint spinning, fluid coating, and knot emulsification. The knots emulsification process can be precisely tunable by adjusting the flow rates. In this way, the size and spacing of the spindle-knots of the microfibers can be achieved with high controllability. More attractively, the construction process benefits from the broad availability of the coating fluids, which determines the compositions of the knots. Thus, the resultant microfibers are imparted with distinctive functions, such as humidity-responsive water capture, thermally triggered water convergence, induced colloidal crystal assembly, and cell microcarrier arrays. These features make such microfibers highly versatile for use in diverse applications.

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Biomimetic “Cactus Spine” with Hierarchical Groove Structure for Efficient Fog Collection

Cited by 100 publications

References 22 publications

Bioinspired Special Wettability Surfaces: From Fundamental Research to Water Harvesting Applications

Bioinspired Special Wettability Surfaces: From Fundamental Research to Water Harvesting Applications

Novel Water Harvesting Fibrous Membranes with Directional Water Transport Capability

Bioinspired Multifunctional Spindle‐Knotted Microfibers from Microfluidics

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