Leaf venation patterns as a model for bioinspired fog harvesting

Across the globe, the quest for clean water is escalating for both households as well as agricultural exigencies. With the industrial revolution and swift population growth, the contamination of natural water bodies has impacted the lives of more than two billion people around the world. A spectrum of water-saving solutions has been examined. Nonetheless, most of them are either energy-inefficient or limited to only a particular region. Thus, the pursuit of clean and potable drinking water is an assignment that invites collective discourse from scientists, policymakers, and innovators. In this connection, the presence of moisture in the atmosphere is considered one of the major sources of potential freshwater. Thus, fishing in atmospheric water is a mammoth opportunity. Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) by some plants and animals in nature (particularly in deserts or arid regions) at low humidity serves as an inspiration for crafting state-of-the-art water harvesting structures and surfaces to buffer the menace of acute water scarcity. Though a lot of research articles and reviews have been reported on bioinspired structures with applications in water and energy harvesting, the area is still open for significant improvisation. This work will address the multidimensional-based AWH ability of natural surfaces or fabricated structures without the involvement of toxic chemicals. Moreover, the review will discuss the availability of clean technologies for emulating fascinating natural surfaces on an industrial scale. In the end, the current challenges and the future scope of bioinspired water harvesters will be discussed for pushing greener technologies to confront climate change.

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“…These characteristics can also be applied to human settlements in arid places. 68 4.5. Multiscale Curvature.…”

Section: 62mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Self-assembly was used to create a hydrophilic silicon dioxide colloidal layer on the PDMS substrate. The silicon dioxide microspheres exhibited super hydrophilicity after 68 Copyright 2020, Elsevier. (l) Natural peristome is shaped like a corolla, with the ratchet teeth on the inner side facing downward.…”

Section: Fabrication Techniques For Various Awh Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Green Fabricating Design of Multidimensional Surfaces for Atmospheric Water Harvesting

Balachandran

Parayilkalapurackal

Rajpoot

et al. 2022

ACS Appl. Bio Mater.

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“…The surface is considered to be hydrophilic regarding its primary responsibility of transporting water as passive water transportation has been discovered to occur more efficiently on a hydrophilic Voronoi pattern surface than a hydrophobic one. Also, the distance of 400μm between cells is efficient for this pattern (Qasemi et al , 2020). Moreover, droplets can be driven by a wettability gradient.…”

Section: Example For a Plant-inspired Design Path Application: A Wate...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from plants: a new framework to approach water-harvesting design concepts

Jalali

Aliabadi

Mahdavinejad

2021

IJBPA

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PurposeThis paper's main objective is to focus on the water-harvesting ability of plants and try to implement a solution-based method to outline a plant-inspired design framework.Design/methodology/approachThe current paper aims to provide a step-by-step approach to the biological-inspired design by looking deeply at plants' mechanisms and features to harvest water and conduct a method to learn them in an organized way.FindingsIn addition to the proposed framework, the fundamental water-harvesting principles of plants including increasing condensation, reducing transpiration and facilitating transportation have been extracted by investigating several adaptable plants. The relevant factors related to each of these three principles are introduced and can potentially ease the process of bio-inspiration as it contributes to the findability and understandability of a particular biologic strategy. As a result, this framework can be used to the formation of novel designs in different disciplines. In this process, the development of an architectural design concept is presented as an example.Originality/valueThe current global issue about the shortage of water leads researchers to learn adaptability from nature and increase the demands of using bio-inspired strategies. The novelty of this study is to introduce a water-harvesting design path, which has been presented using a four-step-plant-to-design process. Learning from plants' water-harvesting strategies will contribute to efficiency in different disciplines. The findings of this study have important implications for developing bio-inspired water-harvesting materials and systems. Moreover, the findings add substantially to the understanding of water-harvesting architecture and play an important role in bridging the gap between theory and practice.

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“…Therefore, it is important to look for the designs that aid in directional transport, especially in the hydrophilic surfaces. To facilitate condensate movement, straight line, 14 wedge-shaped, 39 and branch-patterned 40 tracks were investigated for directional water collection. Some tracks were gravity-assisted and a few integrated Young–Laplace pressure difference and surface energy gradients to drive the condensates spontaneously and efficiently.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Copper Oxide Microtufts on Natural Fractals for Efficient Water Harvesting

et al. 2021

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Hierarchical surfaces that aid in the droplet nucleation, growth, and removal is highly desirable for fog and moisture harvesting applications. Taking inspiration from the unique architecture of leaf skeletons, we present a multiscale surface capable of rapidly nucleating, growing, and directional transport of the water droplets. Copper oxide microtufts were fabricated onto the Ficus religiosa leaf skeletons via electroplating and chemical oxidation techniques. The fabricated surfaces with microtufts had high wettability and very good fog harvesting ability. CuO surfaces tend to become hydrophobic over time because of the adsorption of the airborne species. The surfaces were efficient in fog harvesting even when the hydrophobic coating is present. The overall water collection efficiencies were determined, and the role of the microtufts, fractal structures, and the orientation of leaf veins was investigated. Compared to the planar control surfaces, the noncoated and hydrophobic layer-coated copper oxide microtufts on the leaf skeletons displayed a significant increase in the fog harvesting efficiency. For superhydrophilic skeleton surfaces, the water collection rate was also observed to slightly vary with the vein orientation. The CuO microtufts along with high surface area fractals allowed an effective and sustainable way to capture and transport water. The study is expected to provide valuable insights into the design and fabrication of sustainable and efficient fog harvesting systems.

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Leaf venation patterns as a model for bioinspired fog harvesting

Cited by 20 publications

References 41 publications

Bioinspired Green Fabricating Design of Multidimensional Surfaces for Atmospheric Water Harvesting

Bioinspired Green Fabricating Design of Multidimensional Surfaces for Atmospheric Water Harvesting

Learning from plants: a new framework to approach water-harvesting design concepts

Copper Oxide Microtufts on Natural Fractals for Efficient Water Harvesting

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