An ultrafast mist collector

Abstract

The present invention belongs to the field of fog collection, and mainly relates to an ultrafast fog collector, comprising a fog collection unit, a side water pipe, a drain outlet, and water inside. The inner and outer surfaces of the fog collection unit are both super-hydrophobic, and an array of super-hydrophilic through holes is staggered on its surface. The surfaces of the side water pipe and the drain outlet are both super-hydrophobic. Multiple fog collection units are horizontally bonded from top to bottom between two vertically placed side water pipes, the drain outlet is bonded to the lower part of the side water pipe, and water is injected into the interior of each fog collection unit from the water injection port, thereby forming an ultrafast fog collector. The ultrafast fog collector proposed by the present invention has the advantages of small droplet shedding size, high droplet shedding frequency, and fast fog collection rate, and can achieve high-efficiency fog collection on foggy days; in addition, the present invention can design the size of the fog collection unit, the size of the super-hydrophilic holes, and the hole spacing to adapt to fog environments with different flow rates to achieve the best fog collection effect.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the field of mist collection, and mainly relates to an ultrafast mist collector. Background Art

[0002] The crisis of fresh water shortage has become a global problem that restricts human development. Researchers have proposed various methods to try to solve the crisis, but there are still various limitations such as high cost and unsustainable development. About 10% of the fresh water resources on the earth are stored in the atmosphere in the form of fog or water vapor. In the past few decades, obtaining fresh water resources from fog has attracted widespread attention. Although researchers have made many related efforts, it is still difficult to collect fog from the atmosphere. Until 2001, Andrew et al. from Oxford University revealed that the excellent spontaneous fog-catching ability of the Namib Desert Beetle is due to the patterned surface of its back that combines hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions (Nature 2001, 414, 33-34).

[0003] Since then, researchers have developed a series of nature-inspired fog collection methods. Almost all of these can be categorized into the following five types: wettability-patterned surfaces inspired by the Namib Desert beetle (Nature 2001, 414, 33-34), composite surfaces combining structural and wettability gradients inspired by spider silk (Nature 2010, 463, 640-643), composite surfaces combining structural and wettability gradients inspired by cactus thorns (Nature Communications 2012, 3, 1247), Janus surfaces inspired by lotus leaves (Small 2015, 11, 4379-4384), and slip surfaces inspired by pitcher plants (Nature 2016, 531, 78-82). Among them, the lotus leaf-inspired Janus surface has the highest mist collection rate compared to the other four methods; it mainly relies on the surface wettability gradient to transport the mist droplets captured on the super-hydrophobic side to the super-hydrophilic side. The droplets gathered on the super-hydrophilic surface side eventually drip from the surface under the action of gravity. Since the droplets drip from the super-hydrophilic side of the Janus surface, the collected water will adhere to the super-hydrophilic surface and is difficult to fall off, making it difficult to further increase the mist collection rate. In addition, since all the above-mentioned mist collection methods rely on gravity to drive the shedding of the collected millimeter-scale droplets, the collected droplets fall off the collection surface at a low frequency, making it difficult to achieve a high mist collection rate.

[0004] In summary, existing fog collection methods have the problem of low fog collection rate, which is difficult to meet the demand for efficient water extraction from fog. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a fog collector that can collect water from fog at a high speed. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to address the problem of low fog collection rate in the above-mentioned fog collector and to propose an ultra-fast fog collector.

[0006] In order to achieve the above object, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is:

[0007] An ultrafast mist collector mainly consists of a mist collection unit 1, a side water pipe 2, a drain outlet 3, and internal water 4.

[0008] The mist collection unit 1 is a hollow metal rectangular structure with openings at both ends. The inner and outer surfaces of the metal rectangular structure are successively laser etched and low-surface-energy modified to obtain super-hydrophobicity, and the contact angles of water droplets on both sides of its surface are greater than 150°; and an array of staggered through holes with a diameter of 0.1 mm to 1 mm and a hole center spacing of 0.5 mm to 2 mm are processed on the super-hydrophobic surface 6 at equal intervals by laser etching, wherein the processed hole surface has super-hydrophilicity, and the contact angle of water droplets on its hole surface is less than 10°.

[0009] The side water conduit 2 is a hollow metal tubular structure; the surface is sequentially laser etched and low-surface-energy modified to obtain super-hydrophobicity, and the contact angle of water droplets on its surface is greater than 150°.

[0010] The drain outlet 3 is made of metal material and is in sheet form; the surface is laser etched and modified with low surface energy to obtain super-hydrophobicity, and the contact angle of water droplets on its surface is greater than 150°.

[0011] The multiple mist collection units 1 are horizontally bonded between two vertically placed side water pipes 2 from top to bottom (the two ends of the mist collection unit 1 are respectively bonded to the side water pipes), and the drain port 3 is bonded to the lower part of each side water pipe 2; and water 4 is injected into the interior of the mist collection unit 1 from the water inlet, thereby forming an ultra-fast mist collector.

[0012] When the ultrafast mist collector is placed in a mist flow, the outer surface of its mist collection unit 1 will capture tiny mist droplets 8 in the mist flow. The tiny mist droplets 8 grow and merge on the outer surface of the mist collection unit 1 to form submillimeter-scale micro-mist droplets 9. Because the holes on the mist collection unit 1 are superhydrophilic, the water 4 inside the mist collection unit 1 will wet the superhydrophilic holes 7. Once the micro-mist droplets 9 contact the superhydrophilic holes 7 on the mist collection unit 1 (i.e., the superhydrophilic hole wetting area), they will form a whole with the water 4 inside the mist collection unit 1. The micro-mist droplets 9 will enter the interior of the mist collection unit 1 under the action of the internal Laplace pressure. In addition, in the process of entering the interior of the mist collection unit 1, the micro-mist droplets 9 will also merge with other micro-mist droplets 10 around the superhydrophilic holes 7 and enter the interior of the mist collection unit 1 together. Since the side surface, upper surface, and lower surface of the mist collection unit 1 of the ultrafast mist collector are all provided with an array of staggered holes, the ultrafast mist collector can collect mist flows in different directions at a high rate. When the ultra-fast mist collector 1 collects a certain amount of water, the water will flow down from the inside of the side water pipe 2, out of the drain port 3 and be collected.

[0013] Furthermore, the wall thickness of the hollow metal rectangular structure of the mist collection unit 1 is 0.1mm~0.5mm, and the height is 5mm~11mm, that is, according to the size of the diameter of its super hydrophilic pores 7, the processed super hydrophobic surface 6 with super hydrophilic pores 7 is folded into a rectangular mist collection unit 1 with a height of 5mm~11mm.

[0014] Furthermore, the number n, length l and width w of the mist collecting units 1 are adjusted according to the amount of mist.

[0015] Furthermore, the larger the diameter of the super-hydrophilic holes on the mist collecting unit 1 is, the smaller the height h of the mist collecting unit is.

[0016] Furthermore, the mist collection unit 1, the side water pipe 2 and the drain outlet 3 are made of various engineering metal materials such as aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy.

[0017] Compared with existing mist collection methods and collectors, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0018] (1) The size of the captured micro-droplets detached from the mist collection surface of the ultrafast mist collector in the present invention is sub-millimeter, so the droplet shedding size is small and the droplet shedding frequency is high, so that the ultrafast mist collector has a high mist collection rate.

[0019] (2) The ultrafast mist collector proposed in the present invention does not need to rely on gravity to make the micro-droplets captured on the surface fall off; instead, it uses the Laplace pressure inside the micro-droplets to drive them, so that the micro-droplets can spontaneously and quickly enter the ultrafast mist collector. In the process of entering the ultrafast mist collector, the micro-droplets will also merge with other droplets around the super-hydrophilic pores and enter the ultrafast mist collector together.

[0020] (3) The ultrafast mist collector proposed in the present invention has a high mist collection rate under different directions of mist flow.

[0021] (4) The present invention can design the size of the mist collection unit, the size of the super-hydrophilic pores and the pore spacing to adapt to fog environments with different flow rates to achieve the best mist collection effect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] Figure 1 Schematic diagram of an ultrafast mist collector of the present invention; Figure 1 (a) is the overall diagram of the ultrafast mist collector; Figure 1 (b) AA cross-sectional view of the ultrafast mist collector;

[0023] Figure 2 This is a diagram of the process of micro-mist droplets captured by the surface of the mist collection unit entering the mist collection unit;

[0024] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of fog flows in different directions blowing toward the ultrafast fog collector and the ultrafast fog collector collecting fog.

[0025] In the figure: 1 mist collection unit; 2 side water pipe; 3 drain outlet; 4 internal water; 5 collected water; 6 super hydrophobic surface; 7 super hydrophilic pores; 8 tiny mist droplets; 9 micro mist droplets; 10 micro mist droplets around the super hydrophilic pores. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] The specific embodiments of the present invention will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0027] Example 1

[0028] An ultrafast mist collector such as Figure 1As shown, it comprises a mist collection unit 1, a side water pipe 2, a drain port 3 and water 4 inside the mist collection unit. The inner and outer surfaces of the mist collection unit 1, the side water pipe 2 and the drain port 3 are all super-hydrophobic aluminum surfaces, and their super-hydrophobicity is obtained after laser etching and low surface energy modification, and the contact angle of water droplets on their surfaces is greater than 150 °. Then, an array of dislocated super-hydrophilic holes 7 with a diameter of 0.3mm and a hole center spacing of 1.2mm is processed on the super-hydrophobic aluminum surface 6 by the method of laser etching, wherein the surface of the processed holes has super-hydrophilicity, and the contact angle of water droplets on their hole surfaces is less than 10 °. Three mist collection units 1 with a length of 70mm, a width of 2mm and a height of 11mm are bonded to two side water pipes 2, and two drain ports 3 are respectively bonded to the bottom of the side water pipe 2, and then water 4 is injected into the inside of the three mist collection units 1 by the water injection port, so as to form a kind of ultrafast mist collector.

[0029] The ultrafast mist collector is placed in the mist flow with the mist flow direction α=90°, and the process of the micro mist droplets 9 entering the mist collection unit 1 is as follows: Figure 2 As shown, the side of the mist collection unit 1 can easily capture the tiny mist droplets 8 in the mist flow, and the tiny mist droplets 8 grow on the super-hydrophobic surface 6 and merge to form sub-millimeter-scale micro-mist droplets 9; since the holes on the mist collection unit 1 are super-hydrophilic, the water 4 inside the mist collection unit 1 will wet the super-hydrophilic holes 7. Once the micro-mist droplets 9 come into contact with the super-hydrophilic holes 7 on the mist collection unit 1, they will form a whole with the water 4 inside the mist collection unit 1. The micro-mist droplets 9 will enter the interior of the mist collection unit 1 under the action of the internal Laplace pressure and generate a water jet; in addition, the micro-mist droplets 9 will also merge with the micro-droplets 10 around the super-hydrophilic holes 7 in the process of entering the interior of the mist collection unit 1, and enter the interior of the mist collection unit 1 together, and form a water jet as shown in FIG. Figure 3 The water jet phenomenon shown. The ultrafast mist collector's mist collection unit 1 not only collects mist on its sidewalls, but also on its upper and lower surfaces. Once the ultrafast mist collector collects a certain amount of water, the collected water 5 flows down the side water conduit 2 and is discharged and collected through the drain outlet 3. Mist collection experiments have shown that, with this aperture array parameter, the ultrafast mist collector can collect approximately 98.2g of water per hour.

[0030] Comparative Example 1

[0031] An ultrafast mist collector such as Figure 1As shown, it comprises a mist collection unit 1, a side water pipe 2 and a drain outlet 3. The inner and outer surfaces of the mist collection unit 1, the side water pipe 2 and the drain outlet 3 are all super-hydrophobic aluminum surfaces, and their super-hydrophobicity is obtained after laser etching and low surface energy modification, and the contact angle of water droplets on their surfaces is greater than 150 °. Then, a diameter of 0.1mm and a displaced super-hydrophilic hole 7 array with a hole center spacing of 0.6mm are processed on the super-hydrophobic aluminum surface 6 by the method of laser etching, wherein the surface of the processed hole has super-hydrophilicity, and the contact angle of water droplets on its hole surface is less than 10 °. Three mist collection units 1 with a length of 70mm, a width of 2mm and a height of 11mm are bonded to two side water pipes 2, and two drain outlets 3 are bonded to the bottom of the side water pipe 2 respectively, so as to constitute a kind of ultrafast mist collector.

[0032] The ultrafast mist collector is placed in a mist flow with a mist flow direction of α=90°. The side of the mist collection unit 1 can easily capture tiny droplets 8 in the mist flow. The tiny droplets 8 grow and merge on the super-hydrophobic surface 6 to form submillimeter-scale micro-droplets 9. Although the super-hydrophilic holes 7 on the mist collection unit 1 can also capture micro-droplets 9, since there is no water inside the mist collection unit 1, the micro-droplets 9 will not generate internal Laplace pressure and therefore cannot be transported from the outer surface of the mist collection unit 1 to the interior of the mist collection unit 1. The ultrafast mist collector collects about 0g of water in one hour.

[0033] Example 2

[0034] An ultrafast mist collector such as Figure 1 As shown, it comprises a mist collection unit 1, a side water pipe 2, a drain port 3 and water 4 inside the mist collection unit. The inner and outer surfaces of the mist collection unit 1, the side water pipe 2 and the drain port 3 are all super-hydrophobic aluminum surfaces, and their super-hydrophobicity is obtained after laser etching and low surface energy modification, and the contact angle of water droplets on their surfaces is greater than 150 °. Then, an array of dislocated super-hydrophilic holes 7 with a diameter of 0.5mm and a hole center spacing of 1.5mm is processed on the super-hydrophobic aluminum surface 6 by the method of laser etching, wherein the surface of the processed holes has super-hydrophilicity, and the contact angle of water droplets on their hole surfaces is less than 10 °. Three mist collection units 1 with a length of 70mm, a width of 2mm and a height of 11mm are bonded to two side water pipes 2, and two drain ports 3 are respectively bonded to the bottom of the side water pipe 2, and then water 4 is injected into the inside of the three mist collection units 1 by the water injection port, so as to form a kind of ultrafast mist collector.

[0035] The ultrafast mist collector is placed in the mist flow with the mist flow direction α=90°, and the process of the micro mist droplets 9 entering the mist collection unit 1 is as follows: Figure 2As shown, the side of the mist collection unit 1 can easily capture the tiny mist droplets 8 in the mist flow, and the tiny mist droplets 8 grow on the super-hydrophobic surface 6 and merge to form sub-millimeter-scale micro-mist droplets 9; since the holes on the mist collection unit 1 are super-hydrophilic, the water 4 inside the mist collection unit 1 will wet the super-hydrophilic holes 7. Once the micro-mist droplets 9 come into contact with the super-hydrophilic holes 7 on the mist collection unit 1, they will form a whole with the water 4 inside the mist collection unit 1. The micro-mist droplets 9 will enter the interior of the mist collection unit 1 under the action of the internal Laplace pressure and generate a water jet; in addition, the micro-mist droplets 9 will also merge with the micro-droplets 10 around the super-hydrophilic holes 7 in the process of entering the interior of the mist collection unit 1, and enter the interior of the mist collection unit 1 together, and form a water jet as shown in FIG. Figure 3 The water jet phenomenon shown. The ultrafast mist collector's mist collection unit 1 not only collects mist on its sidewalls, but also on its upper and lower surfaces. Once the ultrafast mist collector collects a certain amount of water, the collected water 5 flows down the side water conduit 2 and is discharged and collected through the drain outlet 3. Mist collection experiments have shown that, with this aperture array parameter, the ultrafast mist collector can collect approximately 92.4g of water per hour.

[0036] Example 3

[0037] An ultrafast mist collector such as Figure 1 As shown, it comprises a mist collection unit 1, a side water pipe 2, a drain port 3 and water 4 inside the mist collection unit. The inner and outer surfaces of the mist collection unit 1, the side water pipe 2 and the drain port 3 are all super-hydrophobic aluminum surfaces, and their super-hydrophobicity is obtained after laser etching and low surface energy modification, and the contact angle of water droplets on their surface is greater than 150 °. Then, an array of dislocated super-hydrophilic holes 7 with a diameter of 0.3mm and a hole center spacing of 1.2mm is processed on the super-hydrophobic aluminum surface 6 by the method of laser etching, wherein the surface of the processed hole has super-hydrophilicity, and the contact angle of water droplets on its hole surface is less than 10 °. Three mist collection units 1 with a length of 70mm, a width of 2mm and a height of 11mm are bonded to two side water pipes 2, and two drain ports 3 are respectively bonded to the bottom of the side water pipe 2, and then water 4 is injected into the inside of the three mist collection units 1 by the water injection port, so as to form a kind of ultrafast mist collector.

[0038] The ultrafast mist collector is placed in the mist flow with a direction of α=60°. The process of the micro mist droplets 9 entering the mist collection unit 1 is as follows: Figure 2As shown, the side and upper surfaces of the mist collection unit 1 can easily capture the tiny mist droplets 8 in the mist flow, and the tiny mist droplets 8 grow and merge on the super-hydrophobic surface 6 to form submillimeter-scale micro-mist droplets 9; since the holes on the mist collection unit 1 are super-hydrophilic, the water 4 inside the mist collection unit 1 will wet the super-hydrophilic holes 7. Once the micro-mist droplets 9 come into contact with the super-hydrophilic holes 7 on the mist collection unit 1, they will form a whole with the water 4 inside the mist collection unit 1. The micro-mist droplets 9 will enter the interior of the mist collection unit 1 under the action of the internal Laplace pressure and generate a water jet; in addition, the micro-mist droplets 9 will also merge with the micro-droplets 10 around the super-hydrophilic holes 7 in the process of entering the interior of the mist collection unit 1, and enter the interior of the mist collection unit 1 together, and form a water jet as shown in FIG. Figure 3 The water jet phenomenon shown. The ultrafast mist collector's mist collection unit 1 not only collects mist on its sidewalls and upper surface, but also on its lower surface, collects some droplets of mist. After the ultrafast mist collector collects a certain amount of water, the collected water 5 flows down the side water conduit 2 and is discharged and collected through the drain outlet 3. Through mist collection experiments, it was determined that the ultrafast mist collector, with these hole array parameters, can collect approximately 106.4g of water per hour.

[0039] The above-described embodiments merely express the implementation methods of the present invention, but should not be understood as limiting the scope of the patent of the present invention. It should be pointed out that for those skilled in the art, several variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present invention, and these all fall within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. An ultrafast mist collector, characterized in that: The ultrafast mist collector comprises a mist collection unit (1), a side water pipe (2), a drain outlet (3), and internal water (4); The mist collection unit (1) is a hollow metal cuboid structure with openings at both ends, wherein the inner and outer surfaces of the metal cuboid structure are super-hydrophobic, and the contact angles of water droplets on both sides of the surface are greater than 150°; and an array of staggered through holes with a diameter of 0.1 mm to 1 mm and a hole center spacing of 0.5 mm to 2 mm are evenly spaced and machined on the super-hydrophobic surface (6) by laser etching, wherein the machined hole surface is super-hydrophilic, and the contact angles of water droplets on the hole surface are less than 10°; the wall thickness of the hollow metal cuboid structure of the mist collection unit (1) is 0.1 mm to 0.5 mm, and the height is 5 mm to 11 mm; The side water pipe (2) is a hollow metal tubular structure; The inner and outer surfaces of the hollow metal tubular structure are superhydrophobic, and the contact angle of water droplets on its surface is greater than 150°; The drain outlet (3) is made of metal material and is in the form of a sheet; its inner and outer surfaces are super-hydrophobic, and the contact angle of water droplets on its surface is greater than 150°; A plurality of mist collection units (1) are horizontally bonded between two vertically placed side water pipes (2) from top to bottom; a drain outlet (3) is bonded to the lower portion of the side water pipe (2); and water (4) is injected into the interior of the mist collection unit (1) to obtain an ultrafast mist collector.

2. The ultrafast mist collector according to claim 1, characterized in that: The number n, length l and width w of the mist collecting units (1) are adjusted according to the amount of mist.

3. The ultrafast mist collector according to claim 1, characterized in that: The larger the diameter of the super-hydrophilic hole on the mist collection unit (1), the smaller the height h of the mist collection unit.

4. The ultrafast mist collector according to claim 1, characterized in that: The mist collection unit (1), the side water pipe (2) and the drain outlet (3) are made of aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy or other various engineering metal materials.

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