Fog harvesting on micro-structured metal meshes: Effect of surface ageing

Access to clean drinking water is a critical need for human societies. Intercepting atmospheric fog can help collect water from the atmosphere, even in situations of high-water scarcity in fog-prone areas. Metal meshes or screens are commonly used as fog collectors, where the mesh surfaces are often...

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Main Authors: Jasafa Showket, Shibangi Majumder, Nirbhay Kumar, Soumyadip Sett, Pallab Sinha Mahapatra
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-03-01
Series:Micro and Nano Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590007223000667
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author Jasafa Showket
Shibangi Majumder
Nirbhay Kumar
Soumyadip Sett
Pallab Sinha Mahapatra
author_facet Jasafa Showket
Shibangi Majumder
Nirbhay Kumar
Soumyadip Sett
Pallab Sinha Mahapatra
author_sort Jasafa Showket
collection DOAJ
description Access to clean drinking water is a critical need for human societies. Intercepting atmospheric fog can help collect water from the atmosphere, even in situations of high-water scarcity in fog-prone areas. Metal meshes or screens are commonly used as fog collectors, where the mesh surfaces are often engineered to enhance water collection rates. Despite significant work over the past several decades, the ideal surface wettability desired in terms of surface roughness and functionalization for efficient fog harvesting is not well understood. The volume of water collected depends on the proportion of fog intercepted by the meshes and how effectively the deposited water droplets drain off into the collector. In this work, we employ scalable surface treatments such as chemical etching and atmospheric pressure vapor deposition on stainless steel meshes to alter the surface wettability. We evaluate the efficacy of fog harvesting on the wettability altered meshes, and compare their performance against untreated stainless steel meshes. We further investigate the effect of surface ageing on the wettability and fog collection performance. Our work not only offers valuable design guidelines for the development of effective fog collectors but also highlights the significant influence of the atmosphere in controlling wetting behaviour.
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spelling doaj.art-3596d7d009ab4d92a7c89d6b1caa6eb32024-03-21T05:37:22ZengElsevierMicro and Nano Engineering2590-00722024-03-0122100236Fog harvesting on micro-structured metal meshes: Effect of surface ageingJasafa Showket0Shibangi Majumder1Nirbhay Kumar2Soumyadip Sett3Pallab Sinha Mahapatra4Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355, IndiaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355, IndiaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355, IndiaDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382355, India; Corresponding authors.Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Tamil Nadu, India; Corresponding authors.Access to clean drinking water is a critical need for human societies. Intercepting atmospheric fog can help collect water from the atmosphere, even in situations of high-water scarcity in fog-prone areas. Metal meshes or screens are commonly used as fog collectors, where the mesh surfaces are often engineered to enhance water collection rates. Despite significant work over the past several decades, the ideal surface wettability desired in terms of surface roughness and functionalization for efficient fog harvesting is not well understood. The volume of water collected depends on the proportion of fog intercepted by the meshes and how effectively the deposited water droplets drain off into the collector. In this work, we employ scalable surface treatments such as chemical etching and atmospheric pressure vapor deposition on stainless steel meshes to alter the surface wettability. We evaluate the efficacy of fog harvesting on the wettability altered meshes, and compare their performance against untreated stainless steel meshes. We further investigate the effect of surface ageing on the wettability and fog collection performance. Our work not only offers valuable design guidelines for the development of effective fog collectors but also highlights the significant influence of the atmosphere in controlling wetting behaviour.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590007223000667Fog harvestingSurface engineeringSurface ageingWater harvesting
spellingShingle Jasafa Showket
Shibangi Majumder
Nirbhay Kumar
Soumyadip Sett
Pallab Sinha Mahapatra
Fog harvesting on micro-structured metal meshes: Effect of surface ageing
Micro and Nano Engineering
Fog harvesting
Surface engineering
Surface ageing
Water harvesting
title Fog harvesting on micro-structured metal meshes: Effect of surface ageing
title_full Fog harvesting on micro-structured metal meshes: Effect of surface ageing
title_fullStr Fog harvesting on micro-structured metal meshes: Effect of surface ageing
title_full_unstemmed Fog harvesting on micro-structured metal meshes: Effect of surface ageing
title_short Fog harvesting on micro-structured metal meshes: Effect of surface ageing
title_sort fog harvesting on micro structured metal meshes effect of surface ageing
topic Fog harvesting
Surface engineering
Surface ageing
Water harvesting
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590007223000667
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AT shibangimajumder fogharvestingonmicrostructuredmetalmesheseffectofsurfaceageing
AT nirbhaykumar fogharvestingonmicrostructuredmetalmesheseffectofsurfaceageing
AT soumyadipsett fogharvestingonmicrostructuredmetalmesheseffectofsurfaceageing
AT pallabsinhamahapatra fogharvestingonmicrostructuredmetalmesheseffectofsurfaceageing