Excellent fog harvesting performance of liquid-infused nano-textured 3D frame

Abstract

Inspired by the superwettability peculiarities of cactus spines and pitcher plants, a unique three-dimensional (3D) superhydrophobic liquid-infused (SHBL) frame is designed by both etching nanospines and infusing liquid lubricant into the nanotextures. On the SHBL frame, the liquid-infused interface could effectively capture the tiny droplet and then accelerate the growth, coalescence and transport of the droplet. Moreover, the presence of the nanospines increases the capillary force, which can effectively lock the lubricant on the SHBL frame. Hence, the 3D SHBL frame achieves the high fog harvesting rate (ε) of 15.2 g cm-3h−1 and efficiency (η) of 25.3%, and exhibits the excellent cycling stability of the fog harvesting. This study opens up a way to design the novel materials that would be expended into some application realms, e.g., fog/water harvesting engineering in industry, forest, etc.