Atmospheric Water Harvesting

Water resources are a global issue, to which water contained in the atmosphere in vapour form can provide a partial response. The study of insects living in deserts has shown that surfaces combining different wettabilities (hydrophobic/hydrophilic) can increase the collection of water by condensation, which is crucial to their survival. A combination of lithographies and plasma roughening makes it possible to micro/nanostructure polymer films in order to locally control the hydrophobic or hydrophilic character of their surface.

Atmospheric Water Harvesting is studied on such surfaces in two configurations : dew condensation and fog capture, in order to establish the rules in surfaces morphology/chemistry that define the water harvesting rate.