Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Bio-inspired Materials and Interface Sciences, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190 Beijing, China.
School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 101407 Beijing, China.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Sep 22;117(38):23436-23442. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2011935117. Epub 2020 Sep 8.
Various creatures, such as spider silk and cacti, have harnessed their surface structures to collect fog for survival. These surfaces typically stay dry and have a large contact hysteresis enabling them to move a condensed water droplet, resulting in an intermittent transport state and a relatively reduced speed. In contrast to these creatures, here we demonstrate that offers a remarkably integrated system on its peristome surface to harvest water continuously in a humid environment. Multicurvature structures are equipped on the peristome to collect and transport water continuously in three steps: nucleation of droplets on the ratchet teeth, self-pumping of water collection that steadily increases by the concavity, and transport of the acquired water to overflow the whole arch channel of the peristome. The water-wetted peristome surface can further enhance the water transport speed by ∼300 times. The biomimetic design expands the application fields in water and organic fogs gathering to the evaporation tower, laboratory, kitchen, and chemical industry.
各种生物,如蜘蛛丝和仙人掌,已经利用它们的表面结构来收集雾水以维持生存。这些表面通常保持干燥并有较大的接触滞后,使它们能够移动冷凝水滴,从而形成间歇传输状态,传输速度也相对较慢。与这些生物不同,我们在这里展示,其在其口盖表面上提供了一个非常集成的系统,可在潮湿环境中连续收集水。多曲率结构配备在口盖上,以分三步连续收集和输送水:在棘轮齿上成核液滴,通过凹面稳定增加的自吸式集水,以及将获得的水输送到口盖整个拱形通道溢出。水润湿的口盖表面可以进一步将水输送速度提高约 300 倍。仿生设计将水和有机雾收集在蒸发塔、实验室、厨房和化学工业中的应用领域扩大。