All-dry patterning method to fabricate hydrophilic/hydrophobic surface for fog harvesting

Inspired by natural creatures that live in the arid climate, fog harvesting can be an efficient approach to overcome freshwater scarcity. Fog harvesting ability of the creatures is mainly based on wettability differences of their surfaces. In this study, inspired by creatures that have hydrophilic regions surrounded by hydrophobic areas, a novel all-dry patterning method was applied to fabricate hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterned surfaces for fog harvesting. For this purpose, patterned surfaces were produced using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method with the help of a commercial magnet and iron powders. The idea behind the use of the magnetic field during PECVD deposition is to hold light iron particles on the substrate under the vacuum environment for masking substrate surface. For the first time, the magnetic field was used to fabricate patterned surfaces in vapor-phase polymerization. Ordinary glass slides were successfully transformed into hydrophilic/hydrophobic patterned glasses. The obtained results showed that the combination of hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions improved the fog harvesting performance.