Slippery liquid-infused surface with micro/nano hierarchical structures: Highly efficient fog harvesting

The lack of fresh water resources is a problem that the world is struggling with. Fast and efficient water capture from fog is a good solution for many organisms living in arid regions. SLIPS surfaces exhibit excellent droplet transport and shedding properties with very low sliding angles compared to superhydrophobic surfaces. It is not easy to produce water film, which can effectively improve the efficiency of fog collection. The shape and size of the micro-nano structure are flexibly adjusted by laser etching, uniformly cover the nanowires on the micron-scale pillars and groove structure by ammonia etching, and inject silicone oil by spin-coating to obtain the slippery liquid infused surface with micro-nano structure. Under the synergistic effect of our constructed micro-nano structure, the superhydrophobic surface injected with lubricant exhibits efficient droplet capture, aggregation and removal properties, which greatly improves the fog collection efficiency (107% higher than the original sample). More importantly, the surface has excellent stability, ice resistance and acid/alkali resistance, which is expected to be used in various extreme adjustments.