Efficient Water Harvesting Enabled by Porous Architecture-Containing Hybrid Surfaces

Recent focuses in atmospheric water harvesting technology have moved to developing superwettable surfaces; however, optimizing the trade-off between fog capture and water transport remains difficult. Here, considering the positive effect of porous structures on water absorbance, we propose, for the first time, the use of mesoporous silica nanospheres (MSNs) and Ag nanoparticles (NPs) in constructing hybrid surfaces. Moreover, a selectively hydrophobic modification of Ag domains endows superhydrophilic/superhydrophobic patterns. Notably, in contrast to patterned surfaces completely constructed with smooth NPs, the porous architecture-containing surfaces display fast droplet removal and high dripping frequency. Under a moderate ratio between the superhydrophilic porous domain and superhydrophobic smooth domain, the water collection efficiency can achieve 1079.73 mg cm(-2) h(-1), and long-term stable collection performance is realized for at least 15 cycles. The surface design paves the foundation for fabricating high-performance water collection materials.

Automated summary

This study proposes a new method using mesoporous silica nanospheres and silver nanoparticles to construct hybrid surfaces, finding that an appropriate ratio between superhydrophilic porous domains and superhydrophobic smooth domains can improve water collection efficiency.