Large-scale water collection of bioinspired cavity-microfibers

Abstract

Large-scale and high-efficient water collection of microfibers with long-term durability still remains challenging. Here we present well-controlled, bioinspired spindle-knot microfibers with cavity knots (named cavity-microfiber), precisely fabricated via a simple gas-in-water microfluidic method, to address this challenge. The cavity-microfiber is endowed with unique surface roughness, mechanical strength, and long-term durability due to the design of cavity as well as polymer composition, thus enabling an outstanding performance of water collection. The maximum water volume collected on a single knot is almost 495 times than that of the knot on the cavity-microfiber. Moreover, the spider-web-like networks assembled controllably by cavity-microfibers demonstrate excellent large-scale and high-efficient water collection. To maximize the water-collecting capacity, nodes/intersections should be designed on the topology of the network as many as possible. Our light-weighted yet tough, low-cost microfibers with high efficiency in directional water transportation offers promising opportunities for large-scale water collection in water-deficient areas.

Progress and Expectation of Atmospheric Water Harvesting

“…Another study demonstrated the high efficiency of spider-weblike meshes ( Figure 1C) assembled by low-cost cavity-microfibers in directional water transportation. 43 Frankly, these methods show great potential for collection efficiency improvement, but these studies were only conducted under controlled laboratory conditions and still need more field tests to verify their true performance.…”

An Interfacial Solar‐Driven Atmospheric Water Generator Based on a Liquid Sorbent with Simultaneous Adsorption–Desorption

“…With increasing population and degrading environment, freshwater scarcity is becoming a major global challenge . As atmospheric water is estimated to be ≈10% of all fresh water on earth, water harvesting from air is attracting significant attention with several strategies such as fog water capture and dewing collection . Recently, solar‐driven atmospheric water generator based on a sequential adsorption–desorption process is emerging as a promising option.…”

Microfluidics‐Based Biomaterials and Biodevices

“…Nevertheless, these approaches are largely limited either by the poor controllability of the morphology or by low reproducible ability and expensive equipment. Significant advances have been spurred in fiber generation as a result of progress in microfluidic platform, which can precisely manipulate small quantities of fluids within integrated microchannels . With the advantage of controllable fabrication, microfluidic systems allow facile assembly of fibers with desired geometries and multiple compartments .…”