Superwetting materials for fog collection: From single function to smart responsive: A review

Abstract

Freshwater resources are becoming increasingly scarce in the worldwide, due to the rapid development of economy, the rising environmental pollution and the deterioration of water quality. Water collection, from the dense fogs in natural environment, were proven as an efficient way to address the above issue. In this review, the development on fog harvesting materials under environmental stimuli-responsive were presented. To start with, the traditional device for fog collection were introduced. Further, the bionic principles of natural organisms for capturing fog droplet, including spider silk, cactus needles, desert beetles, and others, were revealed, and then the current research on fog collection surfaces, with variable wettability responses to environmental stimuli contained temperature, light, photothermally, magnetic, and others, were overviewed in detail. It is expected that this review will help scholars to get a better grasp for the application of environmentally stimuli-responsive materials in fog collection and contributes to the development of fog collection technology.