Three-Dimensional Multilayer Vertical Filament Meshes for Enhancing Efficiency in Fog Water Harvesting

Novel types of vertical filament mesh (VFM) fog harvesters, 3D VFM fog harvesters, and multilayer 3D VFM fog harvesters were developed by mimicking the water-harvesting nature of desert beetles and the spider silks from fog. Four different types of polymer filaments with different hydrophilic–hydrophobic properties were used. The polymer filaments were modified with the polyurethane–sodium alginate (PU–SA) mixture solution, and a simple spraying method was used to form alternating 3D PU–SA microbumps. Polymer VFMs exhibited a higher fog-harvesting efficiency than the vertical metal meshes. Moreover, the hydrophobic VFM was more efficient in fog harvesting than the hydrophilic VFM. Notably, the fog-harvesting efficiency of all VFMs increased by 30–80% after spraying with the mixed PU–SA solution to form a 3D geometric surface structure (3D PU–SA microbumps), which mimicked the desert beetle back surface. This modification caused the fog-harvesting efficiency of PTFE 3D VFM to be thrice higher than that of Fe VFM. This increase was attributed to the improved synergistic effects of fog capturing, droplet growing, and droplet shedding. The multilayer VFMs were more efficient in fog harvesting than the single-layer VFMs because of a larger droplet capture area. The fog-harvesting efficiency of two-layer and four-layer polymer VFMs was approximately 35% and about 45% higher than that of the single-layer polymer VFMs, respectively. The four-layer PTFE 3D VFM with the type B PU–SA bump surface (bump/PU–SA) had the highest efficiency of 287.6 mL/m2/h. Besides the high fog-harvesting efficiency, the proposed polymer VFMs are highly stable, cost-effective, rust-free, and easy to install in practical applications. These advantages are ascribed to the elasticity of the polymer filaments. This work provides new ideas and methods for developing high-performance fog harvesters such as the 3D VFM.