Leaf venation patterns as a model for bioinspired fog harvesting

Collecting water from the atmosphere has been studied to address the global water shortage. One main challenge in this method is designing a patterned surface to maximize the water collection efficiency. In this work, we propose a bioinspired categorization method for the types of surfaces based on leaf venation patterns that are fabricated by direct laser writing. Our method introduces three categories from simple to complex intervals that include: completely linear, a combination of linear and network, and completely networked. Results show that our design-inspired pieces of venations suggest superior performance compared to the simple non-planar surface by boosting the efficiency of about ∼200−400% at the best venation pattern at 60° while making it possible to have enhanced effective and controllable transport of liquid through channels.