Hydrogel-based water evaporators and pumps prepared by crystal engineering
발표자
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초록
내용
In plants, efficient water management is carried out in the entire process of absorbing water from the roots and transferring it to each leaf through the stem, and then evaporating water from the leaves. The human body also efficiently regulates body temperature by controlling the evaporation of water through sweat glands. Recently, artificial sweating has been proposed as an environment-friendly strategy for future cooling systems. However, the key basic function of synthetic sweat glands, i.e., on–off control over the evaporation of water in response to temperature, has been considerably inferior to the performance of mammalian sweat glands. Herein, a simple, random-structured composite based on a responsive hydrogel is presented; this composite shows an outstanding responsive on–off behavior. It exhibits a 35.7-fold change in the water evaporation rate, which is comparable to the performance of human sweat glands.