3D-Printed Plasma-Treated Super-Amphiphilic Surface for Fog Harvesting

The development of super lyophilic surfaces has received tremendous attention due to its wide application in industry and engineering. However, there are still difficulties in preparing super-amphiphilic surfaces, especially those with microstructures. This study reports the fabrication of versatile super-amphiphilic microgroove surfaces (SAMS) through physical and chemical modification. The microgroove structure is achieved through the Fused Deposition Modeling 3D printing method using layer-by-layer (XZ direction) printing, and the surface chemical composition is adjusted through vacuum argon plasma treatment. It also controls the surface roughness coefficient and hydroxyl content through the printed layer height/nozzle diameter ratio and plasma treatment time to optimize the capillary force between the grooves to obtain the most appropriate SAMS. The achieved SAMS demonstrates versatility to absorb common solvents of various polarities, including carbon tetrachloride, ethylene glycol, and water. SAMS showed high fog collection performance of 678 g m^-2h^-1 due to its super amphiphilic properties and microgroove structure, and improved the collection rate by 51.30% and 16.41%, respectively, compared to planar and microgroove surfaces.