Active development of low-cost, sustainable, and low environmental impact technologies for producing freshwater has increasingly been given attention as the world aids its dwindling freshwater supply. Passive systems that can harvest water from fog are an example, however, improving their efficiency in collecting usable freshwater remains to be a challenge. Recently, fog collectors using the nature-inspired biphilic surfaces have been introduced. They comprise a hydrophilic end for water condensation, and a hydrophobic surface which assists transport and drainage of the water droplets. These biphilic surfaces are either made of polymeric materials which have low mechanical strength or prepared using complex multiple steps. In our work, direct fog droplet collection using a biphilic surface composed of zinc and copper oxide nanowires on a mesh was demonstrated. The biphilic material was found to be 60% more efficient in fog collection than pure copper mesh and showed antimicrobial properties through contact-killing tests with <i>E. coli</i> and <i>S. aureus</i>. The material’s ease of preparation, straightforward water collection, and ability to resist biofouling genesis, all support its potential to be a scalable, long-standing fog harvesting system.

Bio-inspired copper-based biphilic surface as an efficient and straightforward fog harvesting material

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