Hierarchically Branched Siloxane Brushes for Efficient Harvesting of Atmospheric Water.

Autor: Song J; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China., Liu J; Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128, Mainz, Germany., Li M; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China., Li S; Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128, Mainz, Germany., Kappl M; Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128, Mainz, Germany., Butt HJ; Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128, Mainz, Germany., Hou Y; Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128, Mainz, Germany.; School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China., Yeung KL; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.; Division of Environment and Sustainability, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.; HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Collaborative Innovation Research Institute, Futian, Shenzhen, China.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) [Small] 2023 Sep; Vol. 19 (37), pp. e2301561. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Apr 25.
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202301561
Abstrakt: Atmospheric water harvesting is considered a viable source of freshwater to alleviate water scarcity in an arid climate. Water condensation tends to be more efficient on superhydrophobic surfaces as the spontaneous coalescence-induced droplet jumping on superhydrophobic surfaces enables faster condensate removal. However, poor water nucleation on these surfaces leads to meager water harvest. A conventional approach to the problem is to fabricate micro- and nanoscale biphilic structures. Nonetheless, the process is complex, expensive, and difficult to scale. Here, the authors present an inexpensive and scalable method based on manipulating the water-repellent coatings of superhydrophobic surfaces. Flexible siloxane can facilitate water nucleation, while a branched structure promotes efficient droplet jumping. Moreover, ToF-SIMS analysis indicated that branched siloxane provides a better water-repellent coating coverage than linear siloxane and the siloxanes comprise hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecular segments. Thus, the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface, TiO 2 nanorods coated with branched siloxanes harvested eight times more water than a typical fluoroalkylsilane (FAS)-coated surface under a low 30% relative humidity and performed better than most reported biphasic materials.
(© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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