School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Frontier Science Center for Synthetic Biology and Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (MOE) , Tianjin University , Tianjin 300350 , China.
Qingdao Institute for Marine Technology , Tianjin University , Qingdao 266235 , China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Sep 18;11(37):34330-34337. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b11862. Epub 2019 Sep 9.
The microdroplets in fog flow have been considered as an important resource for supplying fresh drinking water. Most of the reported works of fog collection focus on the water-collecting ability rather than the environmental reliability of selected materials. In this work, a beetle-inspired hierarchical fog-collecting interface based on the antibacterial needle-array (ABN) and hydrophilic/hydrophobic cooperative structure is displayed. The hydrophilic ABN is coated with zwitterionic carboxybetaine (CB) brushes that endow the fog collector with a long-term cleaning in harsh environment. Due to its strong affinity to water molecules, the tilted needles with a CB coating can facilitate the capture of fog and the rapid delivery of condensed water driven by gravity. After being transported to the connected hydrophobic sheet, the collected droplets can be rapidly detached and stored in the container, achieving a high fog-harvesting rate. Furthermore, CB-patterned channels are integrated on the hydrophobic sheet for the pathway-controlled water delivery. The CB coating is able to efficiently resist bacterial adhesion and contamination during fog harvesting, protecting the device from microbiological corrosion. The current design provides a promising method to incorporate antibacterial ability into fog collectors, which offer great opportunity to develop water harvesters for real-world applications.
雾流中的微液滴已被认为是提供新鲜饮用水的重要资源。大多数报道的雾收集工作都集中在集水能力上，而不是所选材料的环境可靠性上。在这项工作中，展示了一种基于抗菌针阵列 (ABN) 和亲水性/疏水性协同结构的仿甲虫分层雾收集界面。亲水性 ABN 涂有两性离子羧基甜菜碱 (CB) 刷，使雾收集器在恶劣环境中具有长期的自清洁能力。由于其与水分子的强亲和力，涂有 CB 的倾斜针可以促进雾的捕获，并在重力作用下快速输送冷凝水。被运送到连接的疏水片后，收集到的液滴可以迅速脱离并储存在容器中，从而实现高雾收集率。此外，在疏水片上集成了 CB 图案化通道，用于路径控制的水输送。CB 涂层能够在雾收集过程中有效抵抗细菌粘附和污染，保护设备免受微生物腐蚀。该设计为将抗菌能力纳入雾收集器提供了一种有前途的方法，为实际应用中开发水收集器提供了很大的机会。
