Research on preparation and water collection characteristics of bionic pattern surface for multi-order combination - multi-segment transport

Abstract

Collecting water from the atmosphere is seen as a potential way to alleviate global water shortages. Although the large and complex water collecting pattern can quickly transport and collect droplets on the surface where the pattern is located, the collection of droplets is limited by the large-area transport distance and the preparation of complex patterns, and the water collecting pattern cannot completely cover the surface of the material and cannot collect droplets outside the pattern. Therefore, flexible application and amplification cannot be obtained. Aiming at the problem of large-area directional transportation, the characteristics of bionic triangular channel （BTC）and linear channel （LC） are studied in this paper. Combined with their characteristics, the water collection pattern surface of multi-order combination - multi-segment transport（MC-MT） is prepared by laser direct writing technology. This paper systematically describes the water collection process and explores the influence of parameters of BTC and LC on the water collection efficiency, and compares the water collection efficiency of single superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic and mixed wettability surfaces. The experimental results show that the BTC has the characteristics of the directional liquid collection, and the optimal interval of the linear channel is 0.3 mm, and the angle is 15°. The mixed wettability surface prepared by combining the two characteristics is 125.9 % and 242.9 % higher than a single superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surface, respectively. The surfaces have strong self-transport and directional transport capabilities, and can still collect well into the designed water collection area even over large surface distances, which is expected to provide a reference for the design of efficient water collection systems and micro-titration directional manipulation.