Bioinspired superwetting surfaces for fog harvesting fabricated by picosecond laser direct ablation

Abstract

Fog harvesting has been considered as a promising method for solving water crisis in underdeveloped regions. To mimic and optimize the alleged natural fog harvesting ability of the stenocara beetle, hybrid superhydrophobic (hydrophobic, superhydrophilic)/hydrophilic patterns are processed on stainless steel via picosecond laser direct writing. Basically, after laser processing, the surfaces of stainless steel change from hydrophilic to superhydrophilic. Then, after chemical and heat treatment, the superhydrophilic surfaces become superhydrophobic with ultra-low adhesion, and superhydrophobic (hydrophobic) with ultra-high adhesion, respectively. This work systematically examines the fog harvesting ability of picosecond laser treated surfaces (LTS), pristine surfaces (PS), laser and chemical treated surfaces (LCTS), laser and heat-treated surfaces (LHTS). Compared with the PS, the as-prepared surfaces enhanced the fog harvesting efficiency by 50%. This work provides a fast and simple method to fog collectors, which offer a great opportunity to develop water harvesters for real world applications.

Keywords

fog harvesting / superhydrophobic / superhydrophilic / picosecond laser / stenocara beetle

References

[1] HowardG, BartramJDomestic water quantity, service level and health [R], 2003, Geneva, World Health Organization

[2] JacksonR B, CarpenterS R, DahmC N, et al. . Water in a changing world [J]. Ecological Applications, 2001, 11(4): 1027-1045

[3] UN-Water global analysis and assessment of sanitation and drinkingwater [R]. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012.

[4] Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000–2017: Special focus on inequalitie [R]. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2017.

[5] OverpeckJ T. Climate science: The challenge of hot drought [J]. Nature, 2013, 503(7476): 350-351

[6] YangH, ThompsonJ R, FlowerR J. Beijing 2022: Olympics will make water scarcity worse [J]. Nature, 2015, 525(7570): 455

[7] MekonnenM M, HoekstraA Y. Four billion people facing severe water scarcity [J]. Science Advances, 2016, 22e1500323

[8] ZhuH, YangF, LiJ, et al. . High-efficiency water collection on biomimetic material with superwettable patterns [J]. Chemical Communications (Cambridge, England), 2016, 528412415-12417

[9] SunY, GuoZ. Recent advances of bioinspired functional materials with specific wettability: From nature and beyond nature [J]. Nanoscale Horizons, 2019, 4(1): 52-76

[10] JuJ, BaiH, ZhengY, et al. . A multi-structural and multi-functional integrated fog collection system in cactus [J]. Nature Communications, 2012, 3: 1247

[11] Roth-NebelsickA, EbnerM, MirandaT, et al. . Leaf surface structures enable the endemic Namib desert grass Stipagrostis sabulicola to irrigate itself with fog water [J]. Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2012, 9(73): 1965-1974

[12] MorichiG, GalixtoL B, ZanelliA. Novel applications for fog water harvesting [J]. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 2018, 626-36

[13] KimH, YangS, RaoS R, et al. . Water harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks powered by natural sunlight [J]. Science, 2017, 356(6336): 430-434

[14] SinghS C, ElkabbashM, LiZ, et al. . Solar-trackable super-wicking black metal panel for photothermal water sanitation [J]. Nature Sustainability, 2020, 3(11): 938-946

[15] ParkerA R, LawrenceC R. Water capture by a desert beetle [J]. Nature, 2001, 414(6859): 33-34

[16] KimH, RaoS R, KapustinE A, et al. . Adsorption-based atmospheric water harvesting device for arid climates [J]. Nature Communications, 2018, 91191

[17] JuJ, YaoX, YangS, et al. . Cactus stem inspired cone-arrayed surfaces for efficient fog collection [J]. Advanced Functional Materials, 2014, 24(44): 6933-6938

[18] ShiW, AndersonM J, TulkoffJ B, et al. . Fog harvesting with harps [J]. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018, 10(14): 11979-11986

[19] WuT, WuZ, HeY, et al. . Femtosecond laser textured porous nanowire structured glass for enhanced thermal imaging [J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2022, 20(3): 033801

[20] LeeS H, LeeJ H, ParkC W, et al. . Continuous fabrication of bio-inspired water collecting surface via roll-type photolithography [J]. International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology, 2014, 12119-124

[21] ThakurN, RanganathA S, AgarwalK, et al. . Electrospun bead-on-string hierarchical fibers for fog harvesting application [J]. Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, 2017, 302(7): 1700124

[22] ChenH, ZhangP, ZhangL, et al. . Continuous directional water transport on the peristome surface of Nepenthes alata [J]. Nature, 2016, 532759785-89

[23] LinJ, TanX, ShiT, et al. . Leaf vein-inspired hierarchical wedge-shaped tracks on flexible substrate for enhanced directional water collection [J]. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018, 10(51): 44815-44824

[24] ZhuH, GuoZ. Hybrid engineered materials with high water-collecting efficiency inspired by Namib Desert beetles [J]. Chemical Communications (Cambridge, England), 2016, 52(41): 6809-6812

[25] BaiH, WangL, JuJ, et al. . Efficient water collection on integrative bioinspired surfaces with star-shaped wettability patterns [J]. Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla), 2014, 26(29): 5025-5030

[26] JiaX, ChenY, LiuL, et al. . Advances in laser drilling of structural ceramics [J]. Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland), 2022, 12(2): 230

[27] ZhuZ, WuJ, WuZ, et al. . Femtosecond laser micro/nano fabrication for bioinspired superhydrophobic or underwater superoleophobic surfaces [J]. Journal of Central South University, 2021, 28123882-3906

[28] YinK, WuJ, DengQ, et al. . Tailoring micro/nanostructured porous polytetrafluoroethylene surfaces for dual-reversible transition of wettability and transmittance [J]. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2022, 434134756

[29] ZhangJ, ZhangY, YongJ, et al. . Femtosecond laser direct weaving bioinspired superhydrophobic/hydrophilic micro-pattern for fog harvesting [J]. Optics & Laser Technology, 2022, 146107593

[30] YinK, DuH, DongX, et al. . A simple way to achieve bioinspired hybrid wettability surface with micro/nanopatterns for efficient fog collection [J]. Nanoscale, 2017, 9(38): 14620-14626

[31] RenF, LiG, ZhangZ, et al. . A single-layer Janus membrane with dual gradient conical micropore arrays for self-driving fog collection [J]. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2017, 5(35): 18403-18408

[32] KostalE, StrojS, KasemannS, et al. . Fabrication of biomimetic fog-collecting superhydrophilic-superhydrophobic surface micropatterns using femtosecond lasers [J]. Langmuir, 2018, 34(9): 2933-2941

[33] ChuD, YaoP, HuangC. Anti-reflection silicon with self-cleaning processed by femtosecond laser [J]. Optics & Laser Technology, 2021, 136106790

[34] ChuD, SinghS C, YongJ, et al. . Superamphiphobic surfaces with controllable adhesion fabricated by femtosecond laser Bessel beam on PTFE [J]. Advanced Materials Interfaces, 2019, 6(14): 1900550

[35] YongJ, YangQ, ChenF, et al. . Superhydrophobic PDMS surfaces with three-dimensional (3D) pattern-dependent controllable adhesion [J]. Applied Surface Science, 2014, 288579-583

[36] YONG Jia-le, YANG Qing, HOU Xun, et al. Nature-inspired superwettability achieved by femtosecond lasers [J]. Ultrafast Science, 2022: 1–51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.34133/2022/9895418.

[37] YongJ, YangQ, HuoJ, et al. . Underwater gas self-transportation along femtosecond laser-written open superhydrophobic surface microchannels (<100 µm) for bubble/gas manipulation [J]. International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, 2022, 41015002