Enhanced fog collection of hydrogel-coated wires inspired by water film-trapping characteristics of Tillandsia

Fog collection has been widely studied to collect fresh water in arid regions. With the demand of optimizing the design of fog collectors, removing the pinned droplets and accelerating the water drainage have become a challenge. To address this challenge, we propose a fog collection method utilizing calcium alginate hydrogel-coated wires inspired by the water film-trapping characteristics of Tillandsia. Maintaining the effective wire diameter by water film trapped on the hydrogel, the fog collection performance of our hydrogel-coated wire precedes that of a bare wire in collection efficiency (up to 136 % higher) under different flow speed conditions. Significantly, retaining the inter-distance between dual-wires, the collection efficiency of hydrogel-coated dual -wires is 1.2 similar to 1.7 times higher than that of two bare dual-wires. Moreover, the hydrogel-coated wires prevent the formation of water bridges between wires by removing the deposited droplets promptly, which opens different perspectives on designing the hydrogel-coated wires for the purpose of water harvesting, sustainable engineer-ing, and ecofriendly technology.

Automated summary

Inspired by the water film-trapping characteristics of Tillandsia, we propose a fog collection method utilizing calcium alginate hydrogel-coated wires. Our hydrogel-coated wire outperforms a bare wire in fog collection efficiency (up to 136% higher) under different flow speed conditions by maintaining the effective wire diameter through water film trapped on the hydrogel. Additionally, the hydrogel-coated dual-wires have a collection efficiency 1.2 to 1.7 times higher than that of two bare dual-wires by preventing the formation of water bridges between wires.