Condensation of water on PDMS-coated copper surfaces for fresh water harvesting

With an increased need to solve fresh water scarcity for humanity in many places around the world, dew water harvesting is one promising approach to improve the situation. While condensation from humid air has been a research topic for many years, it is still unclear how surface wettability influences the condensation efficiency and the fresh water harvest. In this work, we contribute to bridging this knowledge gap by comparing the condensation efficiency of PDMS-coated hydrophobic and uncoated hydrophilic surfaces. We characterize the humid air velocity field to enable comparability of the present results on condensation efficiency with the results gained at other conditions. In addition, the surface wetting behavior prior to and after the condensation experiment is investigated to analyze the PDMS-coating longevity and allow to draw conclusions on their suitability for long term use in condensation applications.