Abstract
Water harvesting through the condensation of vapor in air has the potential to alleviate water scarcity in arid regions around the globe. When water vapor is condensed on a cooled surface, tiny water droplets act as thermal barriers. Thus, they must be removed rapidly for efficient water harvesting. Passive technologies for droplet removal rely on in-site growth and direct contact of densely distributed droplets. However, it is challenging to remove submicrometer droplets that lead to a poor water harvesting rate. Here, we present a coarsening effect to rapidly remove water droplets with diameters <20 μm from the hydrophilic slippery liquid-infused porous surface (SLIPS). We quantitatively study the driving and drag forces to enhance the rapid droplet size evolution. The self-propelled coarsening effect enables rapid droplet removal regardless of surface orientations, showing a promising approach compared to those on PEGylated hydrophilic surface, hydrophobic SLIPS, and superhydrophobic surface in water harvesting.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 100387 |
Journal | Cell Reports Physical Science |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 21 2021 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Chemistry
- General Engineering
- General Energy
- General Materials Science
- General Physics and Astronomy
Keywords
- coarsening
- condensation
- droplet
- slippery surface
- water harvesting