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Biomimetics
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New Insights into the Water Harvesting Inspired by Living Species...
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New Insights into the Water Harvesting Inspired by Living Species (Animal or Vegetal)

A special issue of Biomimetics (ISSN 2313-7673). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomimetics of Materials and Structures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 3772

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Guilhem Godeau

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institut de Physique de Nice (INPHYNI), UMR 7010, Université Côte d’Azur (UCA), Nice, France
Interests: material sciences; organic chemistry; biomolecule extraction; bioinspiration; bio-sourced materials; biomacromolecules; beetle; plant; water harvesting; surface post-functionalization; 3D printing; hydrogel preparation; nanomaterials; magnetic particles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The availability of water is a vital element for the development of human society. Water is indeed essential at many levels, including hydration, hygiene, and agriculture. Due to climate change and the growth of the human population, it is feared that, in the near future, the lack of water will be one of the main difficulties faced by humanity. Estimations are already warning us regarding the difficulties a large part of the population faces when it comes to water supply. This projected scenario could lead to a catastrophic humanitarian situation, with consequences in the form of massive population migration and associated conflicts.

Inspired by animals and plants capable of harvesting atmospheric water to obtain liquid water, researchers are developing new methods to remedy this problem. This research can take different forms:

  • The study of animal or plant models to understand how they work;
  • The engineering of new materials reproducing the properties observed in nature.

The objective of this issue is to bring together and highlight innovative work in the field of water harvesting inspired by living species. This outcome will be an opportunity to bring together the contributions of leading experts in this field and to motivate the participation of new experts.

Dr. Guilhem Godeau
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biomimetics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biomaterials
  • plant, insects
  • bioinspiration, biomimicry
  • water harvesting
  • surface engineering
  • surface functionalization
  • sustainable development
  • wettability
  • petal effect

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 13135 KiB  
Article
Biotemplate Replication of Novel Mangifera indica Leaf (MIL) for Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Intrinsic Surface Wettability and Collection Efficiency
by Edward Hingha Foday Jr, Taiwo Sesay, Emmanuel Bartholomew Koroma, Anthony Amara Golia Seseh Kanneh, Ekeoma Bridget Chineche, Alpha Yayah Jalloh and John Mambu Koroma
Biomimetics 2022, 7(4), 147; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7040147 - 29 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1571
Abstract
Water shortage has become a global crisis that has posed and still poses a serious threat to the human race, especially in developing countries. Harvesting moisture from the atmosphere is a viable approach to easing the world water crisis due to its ubiquitous [...] Read more.
Water shortage has become a global crisis that has posed and still poses a serious threat to the human race, especially in developing countries. Harvesting moisture from the atmosphere is a viable approach to easing the world water crisis due to its ubiquitous nature. Inspired by nature, biotemplate surfaces have been given considerable attention in recent years though these surfaces still suffer from intrinsic trade-offs making replication more challenging. In the design of artificial surfaces, maximizing their full potential and benefits as that of the natural surface is difficult. Here, we conveniently made use of Mangifera indica leaf (MIL) and its replicated surfaces (RMIL) to collect atmosphere water. This research provides a novel insight into the facile replication mechanism of a wettable surface made of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which has proven useful in collecting atmospheric water. This comparative study shows that biotemplate surfaces (RMIL) with hydrophobic characteristics outperform natural hydrophilic surfaces (DMIL and FMIL) in droplet termination and water collection abilities. Water collection efficiency from the Replicated Mangifera indica leaf (RMIL) surface was shown to be superior to that of the Dry Mangifera indica leaf (DMIL) and Fresh Mangifera indica leaf (FMIL) surfaces. Furthermore, the wettability of the DMIL, FMIL, and RMIL was thoroughly investigated, with the apices playing an important role in droplet roll-off. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into the Water Harvesting Inspired by Living Species (Animal or Vegetal))
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14 pages, 6798 KiB  
Article
Inspired by the Nature: A Post-printed Strategy to Efficiently Elaborate Parahydrophobic Surfaces
by Jordy Queiros Campos, Caroline R. Szczepanski, Marie Gabrielle Medici and Guilhem Godeau
Biomimetics 2022, 7(3), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7030122 - 28 Aug 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1683
Abstract
The lack of drinkable water is one of the most significant risks for the future of the humanity. Estimates show that in the near future, this risk will become the origin of massive migrations leading to humanitarian disaster. As consequence, the development of [...] Read more.
The lack of drinkable water is one of the most significant risks for the future of the humanity. Estimates show that in the near future, this risk will become the origin of massive migrations leading to humanitarian disaster. As consequence, the development of solutions to provide water is becoming ever more critical, and a significant effort is devoted to identifying new sources of water. Among the developed strategies, fog harvesting, which takes advantage of atmospheric water to provide potable water, is a solution of interest due to its potential in sustainable development. Unfortunately, this approach suffers from low yield. In the present work, we take inspiration from living species to design and elaborate surfaces with high potential for water harvesting applications. This work takes advantage of 3D-printing and post-printing functionalization to elaborate a strategy that allows modelling, printing, and functionalization of surfaces to yield parahydrophobic behavior. The roughness and surface morphology of the prepared surfaces were investigated. These characteristics were then related to the observed wettability and potential of the functionalized interfaces for water harvesting applications. This work highlights significant variations in surface wettability via surface modification; strong hydrophobic behavior was observed via modification with linear carboxylic acids particularly for surfaces bearing vertical blades (plate with vertical blades and grid with vertical blades). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Insights into the Water Harvesting Inspired by Living Species (Animal or Vegetal))
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