Rapid 3D Printing of Bioinspired Hybrid Structures for High-Efficiency Fog Collection and Water Transportation

Nature often provides unique and elegant solutions for solving engineering problems. For example, cactus, desert grass, and Nepenthes alata have provided inspirations for the design of fog-collection and water-transportation devices. Here, a bioinspired hybrid fog collector consisting of cactus-inspired spines featuring longitudinal ridges on the surfaces and peristome-inspired bottom channels decorated with curved inclined arc-pitted grooves (C-IAPGs) is developed. Experimentally, the fog collector was fabricated by custom-made micro-continuous liquid interface printing with a resolution of 6.9 μm·pixel^-1 and a speed of up to 125 μm·s^-1. Characterization results show that the printed spines with four longitudinal ridges manifest the maximum fog-collection rate, and the bottom channel with C-IAPGs can efficiently transport the water droplets into the reservoir. This work is believed to be beneficial for developing next-generation fog-collection, water-transportation, and desalination devices.