Issue 45, 2012

Bioinspired spindle-knotted fibers with a strong water-collecting ability from a humid environment

Abstract

We fabricate a bioinspired spindle-knotted fiber (BSF) via an improved method of Rayleigh instability break-up droplets. The BSF is composed of multi-level spindle-knots that can generate continuous gradients of surface energy and different Laplace pressures. We investigate the water collecting ability of BSF under humid environments and observe how the spindle-knots collect water from the environmental humidity by means of cooperative driving forces resulting from individual spindle-knots. We reveal that the multi-level spindle-knots of BSF may play a role in water collection compared with uniform fibers without any spindle-knots. We demonstrate that the size effect of a spindle-knot is related to the capillary adhesion of hanging-drops, thus BSF has a much higher water collection efficiency in humid environments than normal uniform fibers. The mechanism is elucidated further to open a model of high efficiency materials for water collection.

Graphical abstract: Bioinspired spindle-knotted fibers with a strong water-collecting ability from a humid environment

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
13 Aug 2012
Accepted
19 Sep 2012
First published
04 Oct 2012

Soft Matter, 2012,8, 11450-11454

Bioinspired spindle-knotted fibers with a strong water-collecting ability from a humid environment

Y. Chen, L. Wang, Y. Xue, Y. Zheng and L. Jiang, Soft Matter, 2012, 8, 11450 DOI: 10.1039/C2SM26880A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements