Cactus Stem Inspired Cone‐Arrayed Surfaces for Efficient Fog Collection. (1st September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ju, Jie; Yao, Xi; Yang, Shuai; Wang, Lin; Sun, Ruize; He, Yaxu; Jiang, Lei
• Is Part Of: Advanced functional materials. Volume 24:Number 44(2014)
• Page Start: 6933
• Page End: 6938
• Publication Date: 2014-09-01
• Subjects: Materials -- Periodicals; Chemical vapor deposition -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201402229
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1616-301X

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>With the increasing world population and the rapid development of the global industry, clean water is becoming scarcer and scarcer. Means of translating latent water in fog to dominant available water, i.e., fog collection, therefore becomes highly desirable. Previously, it was demonstrated that the cactus <italic>O. Microdasys</italic> has an integrated fog collection system arising from the evenly distributed clusters of spines and trichomes on the cactus stem. Here, it is reported that the intersite of the clusters on the cactus stem is densely covered with cones, which are also capable of collecting water from fog efficiently. Inspired by these cones, using a simple method combining mechanical perforating and template replica technology, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cone arrays are fabricated with different arrangements and the one in hexagonal arrangement proves to be more efficient due to the more turbulent flow filed around the staggered cones and the rapid directional movement of water drops along each cone. This investigation opens up new avenue to collect water efficiently and may also provide clues to research about dust filtering and smog removal, which is attracting increasing attention worldwide.</p> </abstract>