Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Role of Surface Wettability and Edge Effect
Atmospheric water is emerging as an important potable water source. The present work experimentally and theoretically investigates water condensation and collection on flat surfaces with contrasting contact angles and contact angle hysteresis (CAH) to elucidate their roles on water mass collection e...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2017-07-01
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| Series: | Global Challenges |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201700019 |
| _version_ | 1797743695048474624 |
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| author | Yong Jin Lianbin Zhang Peng Wang |
| author_facet | Yong Jin Lianbin Zhang Peng Wang |
| author_sort | Yong Jin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Atmospheric water is emerging as an important potable water source. The present work experimentally and theoretically investigates water condensation and collection on flat surfaces with contrasting contact angles and contact angle hysteresis (CAH) to elucidate their roles on water mass collection efficiency. The experimental results indicate that a hydrophilic surface promotes nucleation and individual droplets growth, and a surface with a low CAH tends to let a smaller droplet to slide down, but the overall water mass collection efficiency is independent of both surface contact angle and CAH. The experimental results agree well with our theoretical calculations. During water condensation, a balance has to be struck between single droplet growth and droplet density on a surface so as to maintain a constant water droplet surface coverage ratio, which renders the role of both surface wettability and hysteresis insignificant to the ultimate water mass collection. Moreover, water droplets on the edges of a surface grow much faster than those on the non‐edge areas and thus dominate the contribution to the water mass collection by the entire surface, directly pointing out the very important role of edge effect on water condensation and collection. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T14:59:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-08789becc5aa4c39938dbd005d2d3b4c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-6646 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T14:59:07Z |
| publishDate | 2017-07-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Global Challenges |
| spelling | doaj.art-08789becc5aa4c39938dbd005d2d3b4c2023-08-14T09:40:43ZengWileyGlobal Challenges2056-66462017-07-0114n/an/a10.1002/gch2.201700019Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Role of Surface Wettability and Edge EffectYong Jin0Lianbin Zhang1Peng Wang2Water Desalination and Reuse Center Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal 23955‐6900 Saudi ArabiaKey Laboratory of Materials Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (HUST) of Ministry of Education School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430074 ChinaWater Desalination and Reuse Center Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Thuwal 23955‐6900 Saudi ArabiaAtmospheric water is emerging as an important potable water source. The present work experimentally and theoretically investigates water condensation and collection on flat surfaces with contrasting contact angles and contact angle hysteresis (CAH) to elucidate their roles on water mass collection efficiency. The experimental results indicate that a hydrophilic surface promotes nucleation and individual droplets growth, and a surface with a low CAH tends to let a smaller droplet to slide down, but the overall water mass collection efficiency is independent of both surface contact angle and CAH. The experimental results agree well with our theoretical calculations. During water condensation, a balance has to be struck between single droplet growth and droplet density on a surface so as to maintain a constant water droplet surface coverage ratio, which renders the role of both surface wettability and hysteresis insignificant to the ultimate water mass collection. Moreover, water droplets on the edges of a surface grow much faster than those on the non‐edge areas and thus dominate the contribution to the water mass collection by the entire surface, directly pointing out the very important role of edge effect on water condensation and collection.https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201700019condensationcontact angle hysteresisedge effectwater collectionwettability |
| spellingShingle | Yong Jin Lianbin Zhang Peng Wang Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Role of Surface Wettability and Edge Effect Global Challenges condensation contact angle hysteresis edge effect water collection wettability |
| title | Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Role of Surface Wettability and Edge Effect |
| title_full | Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Role of Surface Wettability and Edge Effect |
| title_fullStr | Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Role of Surface Wettability and Edge Effect |
| title_full_unstemmed | Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Role of Surface Wettability and Edge Effect |
| title_short | Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Role of Surface Wettability and Edge Effect |
| title_sort | atmospheric water harvesting role of surface wettability and edge effect |
| topic | condensation contact angle hysteresis edge effect water collection wettability |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201700019 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT yongjin atmosphericwaterharvestingroleofsurfacewettabilityandedgeeffect AT lianbinzhang atmosphericwaterharvestingroleofsurfacewettabilityandedgeeffect AT pengwang atmosphericwaterharvestingroleofsurfacewettabilityandedgeeffect |