Bioinspired superwetting materials for water manipulation

Abstract

Water manipulation is crucial for a wide range of engineering applications, such as microfluidics, heat transfer, desalination, and water harvesting. Despite scientific achievements in the past few decades, it remains challenging to achieve efficient and well‐controllable droplet transport in practical applications. In nature, creatures have evolved ingenious wisdom to manipulate water to adapt to their environments. Learning from nature and combining bioinspirations with advanced manufacturing technology are promising to fabricate excellent materials for directional water transport. In this review, we summarize the mechanisms of water droplet manipulation on various biological surfaces and review the recent progress in fabricating hydrophilic surfaces, hybrid hydrophilic/hydrophobic surfaces, and slippery lubricant‐infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) with bioinspiration for water manipulation. These novel bioinspired materials have great potential in many fields, especially for water harvesting. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives in this field are proposed.

Synthesis of superhydrophobic coatings based on silica nanostructure modified with organosilane compounds by sol–gel method for glass surfaces

“…These coatings can be used in any of the above coatings due to their unique properties. For example, due to biodegradation, they can be used in self-healing and antibacterial coatings 11 – 14 , due to morphology and size in self-cleaning and anti-corrosion coatings 15 – 19 , and due to their chemical properties in antifreeze and anti-vapor 19 – 21 .…”

“…These coatings can be used in any of the above coatings due to their unique properties. For example, due to biodegradation, they can be used in self-healing and antibacterial coatings [11][12][13][14] , due to morphology and size in self-cleaning and anti-corrosion coatings [15][16][17][18][19] , and due to their chemical properties in antifreeze and anti-vapor [19][20][21] . Superhydrophobic surfaces are known for two important properties, the first is the surface roughness at the micro and nanoscales and the second is the complex structure.…”

Fluid manipulationviamultifunctional lubricant infused slippery surfaces: principle, design and applications

“…73 Scientists have recently discovered that SLIPS materials inspired by the pitcher plant are an effective surface for fluid manipulation. 74,75 Combining SLIPSs with patterns that differ in wettability as well as shape gradients enable manipulation of the behavior of droplets. In 2015, Manna et al reported on a SLIPS coating formed by a layer-by-layer deposition method.…”

Advances in Bioinspired Superhydrophobic Surfaces Made from Silicones: Fabrication and Application

“…In addition to being attracted to the variations in nature, inspiration ought to be drawn from nature to find better solutions for our progress and development. In recent years, superhydrophobic materials [ 1 ], which are often the subject of research, have been inspired by flora and fauna in nature, such as lotus leaves [ 2 ], morphology molesta floating leaves [ 3 ], butterfly wings [ 4 ], fly eyes [ 5 ], cicada wings [ 6 ], gecko feet [ 7 ], shark skin [ 8 ], legs of water striders [ 9 ], and rose petals [ 10 ], as shown in Figure 1 . After decades of research by researchers, it has been found that there are various artificial superhydrophobic surfaces, such as superhydrophobic particles (silica powder [ 11 ], metal powder [ 12 ], metal oxide powder [ 13 ], polystyrene powder [ 14 ]), superhydrophobic porous materials (membrane [ 15 , 16 , 17 ], concrete [ 18 ], textile [ 19 ], sponge [ 20 ]), and superhydrophobic surface coatings that can coat the surfaces of various materials (wood [ 21 ], aluminum sheets [ 22 ], copper sheets [ 23 ], and various other substrates [ 24 ]).…”