Environmentally Friendly Approach for the Plasma Surface Modification of Fabrics for Improved Fog Harvesting Performance

Abstract

Fog harvesting from the air is one of the sustainable and effective methods to obtain fresh water. Energy-free fog collector systems are widely used for this purpose, but the efficiency of traditional meshes used in these systems is not sufficient. The main objective of this study is to transform ordinary polypropylene fabrics into effective fog harvesting materials by coating them with polymeric thin films using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), which is a one-step and environmentally friendly method. Poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(2,3,4,4,4-hexafluorobutyl acrylate) (PHFBA) thin films were synthesized using PECVD method as hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers, respectively. In this study, the effects of surface wettability and fabric weight on fog harvesting efficiency were investigated. Moreover, the effect of surface roughness on fog harvesting efficiency was studied by modifying of the fabrics with silica particles before PECVD coating. The fabrics obtained with hydrophobic thin-film coating on roughened surface showed the highest fog harvesting efficiency (1.14 L/m2.h). The results of this study show that the fabrics modified by the method developed here can be a promising alternative to the meshes currently used in fog collector. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the Korean Fiber Society.