One-Step Preparation of Hydrophobic Surfaces Containing Hydrophilic Groups for Efficient Water Harvesting

Multifunctional surfaces that are
favorable for both droplet nucleation
and removal are critical for water-harvesting applications, but there
still remain great challenges. Herein, we proposed a facile strategy
to construct hydrophobic surfaces containing moderate hydrophilic
groups to achieve both exceptional droplet nucleation and removal.
Different from natural desert beetle-inspired water-harvesting materials,
these surfaces utilize limited hydrophilic domains to condense fog,
and transport of formed tiny droplets relies on a hydrophobic background.
The total surface area of the presented hydrophobic fabric contains
hydrophilic groups, and the areas for trapping fog have increased.
This feature is optimized to enhance the droplet nucleation density,
and the surface still has excellent liquid repellency, resulting in
maximum water collection efficiency of the prepared surface reaching
up to 3.145 g·cm–2·h–1, much higher than the most reported water-harvesting materials.
Due to its high efficiency and scalability, we believe that the proposed
strategy to construct hydrophobic surfaces containing hydrophilic
groups has great practical value.