Slippery liquid infused porous surface coupling with exposed spindle-like hydrophilic-hydrophobic bumps for enhanced atmosphere fog collection

Abstract

Water collection on slippery liquid infused porous surface (SLIPS) is commonly effective due to the brilliant water transportation and removal property. However, the limited fog deposition sites on SLIPS results in the low fog capture efficiency in the initial water collection state, mitigates the whole water collection rate (WCR). Herein, the deacetylated cellulose acetate (CH) with unique underoil superhydrophilicity and strong water affinity was as the strong hydrophilic bumps to introduce onto the SLIPS, resolved the issue of incompatibility between hydrophobic SLIPS and hydrophilic bumps, and enhanced the fog capture ability of the surface. Furthermore, the spider silk-like PVDF fibrous was also constructed onto SLIPS to enhance the water droplets coalescence property via endowing unique Laplace pressure. The obtained modified SLIPS performed excellent WCR at around 1581.07 mg cm⁻² h⁻¹, which was 48.7 % higher than the original simple SLIPS. This bioinspired surface engineering paradigm establishes systematic quantification of structure-performance correlations in fog harvesting systems, while demonstrating critical design principles for advancing next-generation bioinspired collectors.