Abstract
With the explosive growth of the world’s population and the rapid increase in industrial water consumption, the world’s water supply has fallen into crisis. The shortage of fresh water resources has become a global problem, especially in arid regions. In nature, many organisms can collect water from foggy water under harsh conditions, which provides us with inspiration for the development of new functional fog harvesting materials. A large number of bionic special wettable synthetic surfaces are synthesized for water mist collection. In this review, we introduce some water collection phenomena in nature, outline the basic theories of biological water harvesting, and summarize six mechanisms of biological water collection: increased surface wettability, increased water transmission area, long-distance water delivery, water accumulation and storage, condensation promotion, and gravity-driven. Then, the water collection mechanisms of three typical organisms and their synthesis are discussed. And their function, water collection efficiency, new developments in their biomimetic materials are narrated, which are cactus, spider and desert beetles. The study of multiple bionics was inspired by the discovery of Nepenthes’ moist and smooth peristome. The excellent characteristics of a variety of biological water collection structures, combined with each other, are far superior to other single synthetic surfaces. Furthermore, the main problems in the preparation and application of biomimetic fog harvesting materials and the future development trend of materials fog harvesting are prospected.
Highlights
Water resources are the basic natural resources that are related to the survival and development of human society
Zheng et al introduced thermally responsive polymer molecules containing PNIPAAm segments to the spindle junctions, and light-responsive polymer molecules containing azobenzene segments to achieve precise control of the movement direction of small droplets on the bionic spider silk fiber[145]. These studies have enriched the research on the interface materials of bionic fog harvesting, and show the advantages of special interface materials in the efficient mist water collection
With the rapid economic growth and the lack of protection of water resources, water pollution has caused a serious shortage of water resources
Summary
Water resources are the basic natural resources that are related to the survival and development of human society. After the surface of the body hair is treated with the coating, its microstructure disappears, the adhesion of water droplets on the surface of the body hair increases and the hydrophobicity decreases This indicates that the micro-nano rough structure formed by the grooves and micro-convex structures distributed on the surface of termite body hair is the main reason for its excellent super-hydrophobicity[30]. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic structure on the surface is used by Namib Desert beetle[46] to collect water These organisms that can capture fog in the air provide a lot of afflatus for researchers, so many bionic fog harvesting materials have been developed. The main problems in the preparation, application and the future development trend of biomimetic fog harvesting materials are prospected
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
