Abstract
Fog harvesting stands out as a simple and inexpensive form to produce drinkablewater from alternative sources, when compared to other available techniques.This paper presents results from a set of experiments performed on radiative con-densers, deemed as a promising system to be integrated in building envelopes, fol-lowing a literature review on fog condensers presented in a previous work. Ananalysis of condensation potential obtained using high emissivity substrates andtitanium dioxide nanocoatings is presented, as well as the influence of sample posi-tion and orientation, and impact of climatic variables. Finally, the role of nanotech-nology in overcoming limitations of radiative systems is discussed as a means toincrease harvesting efficiency with functionalized, engineered nano-patterns oncollector surface. Based on biomimicry principles, nanocoatings including nano-scale 3D optimal geometries are discussed, and the use of nanoimprint technology (NIL) is proposed to massively produce nano-patterned panels with biomimetic fogcapturing features.