Artificial spider silk could help us harvest drinking water from air

Artificial fibres that can collect water from the air much like spider silk gathers dew could be used for large-scale water collection from fog. Yongmei Zheng at Beihang University in China and her colleagues have designed artificial microfibre threads covered in spiral-shaped bumps that can maintain their water collection abilities because they can self-repair. To make the bumps, a plastic microfibre is first coated with a layer of hydrophilic titanium dioxide, which creates bulges in the fibre much as a trickle of water breaks up into individual droplets rather than creating a constant stream. The researchers then used a high temperature to crack the bumps into a helical shape. The helix creates a larger surface area for a water droplet to attach to and forms stronger bonds with it, which means each bump can carry 2000 times more water than the volume of the bump itself. Journal reference: doi/ – Learn more ➤ Subscribe ➤ Get more from New Scientist: Official website: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: LinkedIn: About New Scientist: New Scientist was founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”. Today our website, videos, newsletters, app, podcast and print magazine cover the world’s most important, exciting and entertaining science news as well as asking the big-picture questions about life, the universe, and what it means to be human. New Scientist