Ultraviolet modificated hydrophobic glass on-demand hydrophobic/ superhydrophilic patterned surface for fog harvesting and underwater oil resistance

Atmospheric water collection provides a new solution to overcome the issue of water shortage. Learning from the smart creatures, biomimetic materials with the ability of fog harvesting have been development based on the surface wettability. Herein, a hydrophobic glass with high transparency could be fabricated to mimic the wettability patterns on the back of Stenocara beetle, by combining with different patterned masks and ultraviolet (UV) treatment method. The water collection rate of hydrophobic/superhydrophilic patterned glass has been optimized by changing and combining the size of superhydrophilic patterns on the hydrophobic surface, as well as the percent of superhydrophilic area. Comparing with uniform superwetting surfaces, the fog harvesting efficiency of fabricated patterned surface has been improved. The surface with smaller superhydrophilic pattern size and larger percent of superhydrophilic pattern area exhibits a higher fog harvesting efficiency. In the other hand, the hydrophobic glass could be modified to be superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic without mask under UV treatment, which has the ability of acid and alkali resistance.

Automated summary

Atmospheric water collection is a new solution to tackle the issue of water shortage. Biomimetic materials have been developed based on surface wettability to mimic fog-harvesting abilities observed in smart creatures. By manipulating the size and percentage of superhydrophilic patterns on a hydrophobic glass surface, the fog harvesting efficiency has been significantly improved. Additionally, the hydrophobic glass can be modified to be acid and alkali resistant while maintaining superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic properties.