73 / 2019-10-25 16:45:22

Lotus-inspired evaporator with Janus wettability and bimodal pores for efficient and endurable evaporation

Lotus-inspired evaporator,Janus wettability,bimodal pores

Growing fresh water shortage has seriously influenced ecosystem and social development in not only arid regions. In this article, inspired by the natural lotus, featured porous roots for respiration and Janus leaves for self-floating transpiration, we designed a lotus morphology-inspired biomimetic evaporator (MBE), which has bimodal pores and Janus wettability. The bimodal pores, contain the 3D interconnected truss-like macropores and paralleled lotus-root-like mesopores in each truss, not only contribute to the lower density for self-floating and more patulous pores for vapor exhausting, but also excellent thermal regulation and robust mechanical performance. Further characterization confirmed the hydrophilic macropores have a high water transport capacity, while the upper hydrophobic mesopores layer cuts off water transportation and prevents salt from accumulating on the surface, contributing to the stability of long-term STC evaporation. Impressively, it is astonished that MBE demonstrates lower interfaces vaporization enthalpy of water than grinding and single wettability carbon, which is owing to the particularly bimodal pores and Janus wettability. Noteworthy, lower interfaces vaporization enthalpy of water denotes higher evaporation rate at the same efficiency of STC and thermal dissipation.