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Bio-inspired surfaces with superamphiphobic properties are well known as effective candidates for antifouling technology. However, the limitation of large-area mastering, patterning and pattern collapsing upon physical contact are the bottleneck for practical utilization in marine and medical applications. In this study, a roll-to-plate nanoimprint lithography (R2P NIL) process using Morphotonics’ automated Portis NIL600 tool was used to replicate high aspect ratio (5.0) micro-structures via reusable intermediate flexible stamps that were fabricated from silicon master molds. Two types of Morphotonics’ in-house UV-curable resins were used to replicate a micro-pillar (PIL) and circular rings with eight stripe supporters (C-RESS) micro-structure onto polycarbonate (PC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foil substrates. The pattern quality and surface wettability was compared to a conventional polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) soft lithography process. It was found that the heights of the R2P NIL replicated PIL and C-RESS patterns deviated less than 6% and 5% from the pattern design, respectively. Moreover, the surface wettability of the imprinted PIL and C-RESS patterns was found to be superhydro- and oleophobic and hydro- and oleophobic, respectively, with good robustness for the C-RESS micro-structure. Therefore, the R2P NIL process is expected to be a promising method to fabricate robust C-RESS micro-structures for large-scale anti-biofouling application.

In this study, a simple flame treatment was conducted to improve hydrophobicity of PDMS surfaces with a square guard ring (SGR) structure. In a scratch test, it was found that a surface with a pattern of circular rings and eight stripe supporters (C-RESS) (width: 2.0 μm, height: 5.0 μm) with the SGR structure (width: 20 μm, height: 100 μm) had the highest durability and no collapsing structures were found. After the surface with the pattern of the C-RESS with the SGR structure was simple flame-treated at 700 °C ± 20 °C for 20 s, a unique flower-like nano-structure was developed on the surface and average surface roughness increased from 210.5 to 450.4 nm. The C-RESS with the SGR structure exhibited superhydrophobic properties with water and ethylene contact angle of 159.2°± 1.6°and 157.9°± 3.2°, respectively. The unique surface topology and nano-structure become attractive because of the combination of its high durability and excellent superhydrophobic properties. Therefore, the flame-treated surface with the pattern of the C-RESS with the SGR structure is expected to be one of the promising antifouling technologies in various applications.

An interdigitated electrode (IDE) capacitive humidity sensor fabricated on a silicon substrate was used to investigate sensing materials, which proved to be an ultrahigh-sensitivity humidity sensor. A sensing layer combination (SLC) between vertically aligned ZnO nanorods and optimal graphene oxide (GO) was prepared on the device and was tested as a humidity sensor. X-ray diffractometry (XRD) exhibited crystallized wurtzite structure of ZnO nanorods and transmission electron microscope (TEM) shown perfectly indexed hexagonal wurtzite ZnO structure dots position correspondence. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to analyze ZnO nanorods/GO morphologies. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) clearly exhibited GO presence and hydrophilic functional groups (carboxyl, epoxy, and hydroxyl), respectively. The SLC prominently demonstrated ultrahigh sensitivity (up to 196.95% or 1.97 times from commercial sensor; HS1101, Humirel) and linear responses behavior with 0.96 for coefficient of determination. The device sensitivity obviously improved as steps of 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90% RH at values of 1.09, 1.41, 1.51, 1.65, 1.80, and 1.91 times, respectively. The device also exhibited fast response (25 s) and short recovery times (17 s). Its hysteresis (6.58%) manifestly improved to 1.84 times. Moreover, repeatability and long-term ability of the device demonstrated high accuracy (range ±0.37pF) and durability.