Solar-Driven Thin Air Gap Membrane Distillation with a Slippery Condensing Surface.

Membrane-based desalination is essential for mitigating global water scarcity; yet, the process is energy-intensive and heavily reliant on fossil fuels, resulting in substantial carbon emissions. To address the challenges of treating seawater, produced water, brackish groundwater, and wastewater, we have developed a thin air gap membrane distillation (AGMD) system featuring a novel slippery condensing surface. The quasi-liquid slippery surface facilitates efficient condensate water droplet removal, allowing for the implementation of a 1 mm thin air gap.

Sustainable biomimetic solar distillation with edge crystallization for passive salt collection and zero brine discharge.

The urgency of addressing water scarcity and exponential population rise has necessitated the use of sustainable desalination for clean water production, while conventional thermal desalination processes consume fossil fuel with brine rejection. As a promising solution to sustainable solar thermal distillation, we report a scalable mangrove-mimicked device for direct solar vapor generation and passive salt collection without brine discharge. Capillarity-driven salty water supply and continuous vapor generation are ensured by anti-corrosion porous wicking stem and multi-layer leaves, which are made of low-cost superhydrophilic nanostructured titanium meshes.

Insights into capillary-driven motion of micro-particles interacting with advancing meniscus on a substrate.

Liquid-particle interactions at the micro-scale are quite different from the corresponding macro-scale interactions due to the substantial role of capillary forces. Herein, we explore the interaction of a single micro-particle with an air-liquid-substrate contact line. The interaction features ballistic-like motion of micro-particles toward the interacting three-phase contact line with velocities as high as 0.

Biomimetic on-chip filtration enabled by direct micro-3D printing on membrane.

Membrane-on-chip is of growing interest in a wide variety of high-throughput environmental and water research. Advances in membrane technology continuously provide novel materials and multi-functional structures. Yet, the incorporation of membrane into microfluidic devices remains challenging, thus limiting its versatile utilization.

Impact of PEGDA photopolymerization in micro-stereolithography on 3D printed hydrogel structure and swelling.

3D printing complex architectures of responsive-hydratable polymers are enabled by stereolithography via photopolymerization. Yet, insufficient crosslinking leads to compromised structural integrity of the photopolymerized samples, which affects the functionality and reliability of hydrogel devices significantly. Here we investigate how curing parameters and ink formulation affect 3D printed PEGDA samples by using a combination of microfabrication, structural characterization, and reactive coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation.

Empowering microfluidics by micro-3D printing and solution-based mineral coating.

Fluid-solid interaction in porous materials is of tremendous importance to earth, space, energy, environment, biological, and medical applications. High-resolution 3D printing enables efficient fabrication of porous microfluidic devices with complicated pore-throat morphology, but lacking desired surface functionality. In this work, we propose a novel approach to additively fabricate functional porous devices by integrating micro-3D printing and solution-based internal coating.

Condensation of Satellite Droplets on Lubricant-Cloaked Droplets.

Condensation on lubricant-infused micro- or nanotextured superhydrophobic surfaces exhibits remarkable heat transfer performance owing to the high condensation nucleation density and efficient condensate droplet removal. When a low surface tension lubricant is used, it can spread on the condensed droplet and "cloak" it. Here, we describe a previously unobserved condensation phenomenon of satellite droplet formation on lubricant-cloaked water droplets using environmental scanning electron microscopy.

Hybrid graphene metasurface for near-infrared absorbers.

We experimentally demonstrated an amorphous graphene-based metasurface yielding near-infrared super absorber characteristic. The structure is obtained by alternatively combining magnetron-sputtering deposition and graphene transfer coating fabrication techniques. The thickness constraint of the physical vapor-deposited amorphous metallic layer is unlocked and as a result, the as-fabricated graphene-based metasurface absorber achieves near-perfect absorption in the near-infrared region with an ultra-broad spectral bandwidth of 3.

Direct Prediction of Calcite Surface Wettability with First-Principles Quantum Simulation.

Prediction of intrinsic surface wettability from first-principles offers great opportunities in probing new physics of natural phenomena and enhancing energy production or transport efficiency. We propose a general quantum mechanical approach to predict the macroscopic wettability of any solid crystal surfaces for different liquids directly through atomic-level density functional simulation. As a benchmark, the wetting characteristics of calcite crystal (10.

Sunlight-Sensitive Anti-Fouling Nanostructured TiO2 coated Cu Meshes for Ultrafast Oily Water Treatment.

Nanostructured materials with desired wettability and optical property can play an important role in reducing the energy consumption of oily water treatment technologies. For effective oily water treatment, membrane materials with high strength, sunlight-sensitive anti-fouling, relative low fabrication cost, and controllable wettability are being explored. In the proposed oily water treatment approach, nanostructured TiO2-coated copper (TNS-Cu) meshes are used.

Tortuously structured polyvinyl chloride/polyurethane fibrous membranes for high-efficiency fine particulate filtration.

Two-tier composite filtration medium exhibiting excellent filtration performance to airborne particulate was prepared by a facile deposition of electrospun polyvinyl chloride (PVC)/polyurethane (PU) fibers on a conventional filter paper support. The tortuous structure and composition of resultant fibrous membranes can be finely controlled by regulating the precursor solution composition. By employing the PU incorporation, the pristine PVC fibrous membranes were endowed with robust tensile strength approaching to 9.

Fabrication of superhydrophobic films with robust adhesion and dual pinning state via in situ polymerization.

Superhydrophobic films on glass substrate with robust adhesion and dual pinning to the water droplets were fabricated utilizing a novel in situ polymerized fluorinated polybenzoxazine (F-PBZ) having drooping aliphatic chains and incorporated SiO2 nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs). By employing the F-PBZ/SiO2 NPs modification, the as-prepared composite films possess the robust adhesion to the glass substrate and superhydrophobic pinned state with water contact angle (WCA) of 150° and the non-pinned state with WCA approaching to 165°. Surface morphological studies have indicated that the wettability of the resultant films could be controlled by tuning the surface composition as well as the hierarchical structures.

An in situ polymerization approach for the synthesis of superhydrophobic and superoleophilic nanofibrous membranes for oil-water separation.

Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic nanofibrous membranes exhibiting robust oil-water separation performance were prepared by a facile combination of electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers and a novel in situ polymerized fluorinated polybenzoxazine (F-PBZ) functional layer that incorporated silica nanoparticles (SiO(2) NPs). By employing the F-PBZ/SiO(2) NPs modification, the pristine hydrophilic CA nanofibrous membranes were endowed with a superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle of 161° and a superoleophilicity with the oil contact angle of 3°. Surface morphological studies have indicated that the wettability of resultant membranes could be manipulated by tuning the surface composition as well as the hierarchical structures.

Synthesis of superamphiphobic breathable membranes utilizing SiO2 nanoparticles decorated fluorinated polyurethane nanofibers.

Superamphiphobic nanofibrous membranes exhibiting robust water/oil proof and breathable performances were prepared by the combination of a novel synthesized fluorinated polyurethane (FPU) containing a terminal perfluoroalkane segment and incorporated SiO(2) nanoparticles (SiO(2) NPs). By employing the FPU/SiO(2) NPs incorporation, the hybrid membranes possess superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 165° and superoleophobicity with an oil contact angle of 151°. Surface morphological studies have indicated that the wettability of resultant membranes could be manipulated by tuning the surface composition as well as the hierarchical structures.

Synthesis of superhydrophobic silica nanofibrous membranes with robust thermal stability and flexibility via in situ polymerization.

Superhydrophobic silica nanofibrous membranes exhibiting robust thermal stability and flexibility were prepared by a facile combination of electrospun silica nanofibers and a novel in situ polymerized fluorinated polybenzoxazine (F-PBZ) functional layer that incorporated SiO(2) nanoparticles (SiO(2) NPs). By using F-PBZ/SiO(2) NP modification, the pristine hydrophilic silica nanofibrous membranes were endowed with superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle (WCA) of up to 161°. Surface morphological studies have revealed that the wettability of resultant membranes could be manipulated by tuning the surface composition as well as the hierarchical structures.