Hierarchical fibers for water collection inspired by spider silk

Abstract

Water scarcity plagues two-thirds of the global population. Interestingly, researchers have found that spider silk exhibits excellent water-collection ability owing to its unique structure and chemical components. Based on this characteristic, numerous bioinspired fibers have been fabricated for water collection. Herein, we review the water-collection process for spider silk and recent vital advances in bioinspired fibriform materials, focusing on the water-collection mechanisms of spindle-knot fibers, which exhibit directional droplet transport, hanging mechanism and hanging ability. Also, we evaluated their water-collection abilities on a micro- and macro-scale, which gave a better view for the design of bioinspired water-collection materials. These advances enable the significant use of bioinspired fibers in water collection, which may be applied in several other fields, such as directional transport, tissue engineering, oil-water separation and biosensors.