Highly Stable and Transparent Slippery Surface on Silica Glass Fabricated by Femtosecond Laser

Abstract

Underwater optical window plays an important role in ocean detection. Studies show that marine biofouling is one of the biggest challenges that affect the performance of the optical window. Recently, nepenthes‐inspired lubrication‐infused slippery surfaces (SLIPS) with excellent anti‐biological adsorption features have been widely used to resolve this problem. However, low mechanical resistance and the easy loss of infused lubricants affect the slippery capability of this method. In the present study, a novel 3D bionic slippery surface was fabricated using a femtosecond laser wet etching on silica glass. In this method, the lubricant of the compartment structure SLIPS is stored in the inner compartment and is transported to the surface under the effect of the capillary forth. The unique structure of the proposed scheme dramatically improved the surface durability compared with the normal SLIPS, and does not affect the intrinsic transparency of the substrate material. The performed analyses revealed that the proposed scheme has excellent optical transmittance and durability, and is expected to have wide applications in the ocean detection field.

Triboelectric ‘electrostatic tweezers’ for manipulating droplets on lubricated slippery surfaces prepared by femtosecond laser processing

“…A slippery surface usually has high stability and good selfrepairing capability [41]. Even if subjected to multiple bending, friction, and droplet scour treatments, the slippery surface prepared by the femtosecond laser can maintain liquid repulsion for a long time [41,44]. As shown in figure 3(i-i) and movie S10 (supporting information), even if a knife scratches the slippery surface, the TCR can guide liquid droplets to slide over the scratch.…”

“…Unlike superhydrophobic surfaces, Nepenthes-inspired lubricated slippery surfaces also have excellent liquid repellence and do not have the disadvantages of superhydrophobic surfaces (figure 1(g-iv)) [40,41]. This slippery surface uses lubricant trapped between porous microstructures to form a layer of lubrication on the substrate surface to repel various liquids and has been successfully applied in various fields, such as droplet and bubble manipulation, cell engineering, biomedical, antifouling, anti-icing, and anticorrosion [39,[42][43][44][45][46][47]. By taking advantage of slippery surfaces, the realization of electrostatic manipulation of droplets by combining ET with slippery surfaces will open up many additional functions and applications (figure 1(g-v)).…”

Reversible Bubble Transfer on a Bioinspired Tridirectionally Anisotropic Lubricant-Infused Surface

“…27 Liang et al utilized femtosecond laser wet etching of silica glass to create a novel 3D bionic SLIPS, which significantly improved the surface's resistance to contamination in the marine environment without altering the inherent transparency of the substrate. 28 Inspired by the slippery property of Pitcher plants, 29 the unidirectional anisotropy of butterfly wings, 30 and the bidirectional anisotropy of rice leaves, 31 we present a tridirectionally anisotropic lubricant-infused surface (TALIS) consisting of step-like structures and lubricant. The step-like structure can additionally introduce unidirectional anisotropy to the surface while the usual grooves can only induce bidirectional anisotropy.…”

“…Yong et al pioneered the use of femtosecond laser direct writing to construct SLIS substrate on a polymer surface and demonstrated it to be a versatile method for polymers. , Zhu et al used femtosecond laser ablation and ferrofluid injection to treat the surface of NiTi alloy and achieved ultrafast transport, anti-buoyancy motion, and programmable coalescence of bubbles based on this surface . Liang et al utilized femtosecond laser wet etching of silica glass to create a novel 3D bionic SLIPS, which significantly improved the surface’s resistance to contamination in the marine environment without altering the inherent transparency of the substrate …”