Electrospinning water harvesters inspired by spider silk and beetle

• Published in: Materials letters Vol. 211; pp. 28 - 31
• Main Authors: Huang, Zhao-Xia, Liu, Xiaoxiao, Wu, Jiawei, Wong, Shing-Chung, Qu, Jin-Ping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.01.2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Beetle; Bio-inspired; Contact angle; Electron microscopy; Electrospinning; Fresh water; Harvesters; Harvesting; Hydrophobicity; Materials science; Nanofibers; Scanning electron microscopy; Scarcity; Silk; Spider silk; Water harvester; Electrospinning; Water harvester; Bio-inspired; Spider silk; Beetle
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2017.09.072

•Bio-inspired PAN/EG membrane has been fabricated by electrospinning technique.•Water harvesting efficiency shows 91% higher than control sample.•PAN/EG membrane shows durability in water harvesting. Fabricating a water harvester that exhibits desirable performance is an essential task to solve the fresh water scarcity issue. In this manuscript, we introduced a bio-inspired concept for a novel bead-on-string nanofiber with hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity simultaneously by electrospinning technique, that can be used as a high-performance water harvester. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and water contact angle measurement showed the bio-inspired structures of novel water harvesters and a custom-made setup was used to evaluate its water harvesting ability. The water harvesting efficiency of our membrane was determined to be 744mg/cm2/h, which was 91% higher than the virgin PAN membrane. The durability was also tested and reported.