Abstract
Various creatures, such as spider silk and cacti, have harnessed their surface structures to collect fog for survival. These surfaces typically stay dry and have a large contact hysteresis enabling them to move a condensed water droplet, resulting in an intermittent transport state and a relatively reduced speed. In contrast to these creatures, here we demonstrate that Nepenthes alata offers a remarkably integrated system on its peristome surface to harvest water continuously in a humid environment. Multicurvature structures are equipped on the peristome to collect and transport water continuously in three steps: nucleation of droplets on the ratchet teeth, self-pumping of water collection that steadily increases by the concavity, and transport of the acquired water to overflow the whole arch channel of the peristome. The water-wetted peristome surface can further enhance the water transport speed by ∼300 times. The biomimetic design expands the application fields in water and organic fogs gathering to the evaporation tower, laboratory, kitchen, and chemical industry.
Highlights
Various creatures, such as spider silk and cacti, have harnessed their surface structures to collect fog for survival
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images reveal the detailed morphology of the ratchet teeth along the inner edge of the peristome (Fig. 1 C and D)
The hierarchical structures that derive from the tips of the ratchet teeth form two ordered structures that are regularly distributed along the peristome surface (Fig. 1E)
Summary
Various creatures, such as spider silk and cacti, have harnessed their surface structures to collect fog for survival These surfaces typically stay dry and have a large contact hysteresis enabling them to move a condensed water droplet, resulting in an intermittent transport state and a relatively reduced speed. In contrast to these creatures, here we demonstrate that Nepenthes alata offers a remarkably integrated system on its peristome surface to harvest water continuously in a humid environment. We apply this methodology to harvest and transport water, isopropanol, kerosene, glycol, and gasoline fog on various artificial materials, including
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