Namib desert beetle inspired special patterned fabric with programmable and gradient wettability for efficient fog harvesting

Abstract

Efficient collection of water from fog provides a potential solution to solve the global freshwater shortage problem, particularly in the desert or arid regions. In this work, a flexible and highly efficient fog collector was prepared by mimicking the back exoskeleton structure of the Namib desert beetle. The improved fog collector was constructed by a superhydrophobic-superhydrophilic patterned fabric via a simple weaving method, followed by in-situ deposition of copper particles. Compared with the conventional fog collector with a plane structure, the fabric has shown a higher water-harvesting rate at 1432.7 mg/h/cm2, owing to the biomimetic three-dimensional structure, its enhanced condensation performance enabled by the copper coating and the rational distribution of wetting units. The device construction makes use of the widely available textile materials through mature manufacturing technology, which makes it highly suitable for large-scale industrial production.