Invisible Gates for Moving Water Droplets: Adhesive Force Gradients on a Biomimetic Superhydrophobic Surface

Abstract

On a hybrid surface, a gradient in the areal number density of metal domes generates an adhesive force gradient (AFG) that divides the surface into areas of water droplet sliding and adhesion. We demonstrate droplet-mass-dependent pinning of sliding water microdroplets on a tilted AFG hybrid surface. The pinning location acts as an invisible gate for the sliding water microdroplets.

Fabrication of honeycomb films by the breath figure technique and their applications

“…Post-modifications of honeycomb films have produced unique surface properties. For example, superhydrophobic surfaces with strong water droplet adhesion properties were created by combining electroless plating and pillar formation [123,124]. Thermoresponsive wettability control from the superhydrophobic to the wetting state has been achieved by using amphiphilic copolymers containing thermoresponsive moieties [125].…”

Dynamic Gradient Directed Molecular Transport and Concentration in Hydrogel Films

“…gel electrophoresis, diffusiophoresis and chromatography), and approaches utilizing molecular motors or chemical potential gradients to drive molecular transport are becoming widely discussed in the literature. Use of surfaces containing chemical gradients to drive the motion of biological cells, liquid droplets, nanoparticles, adamantine‐appended dye molecules, poly(ethylene glycol), and poly(propyleneimine) dendrimers is now well established. Recently, we reported that charged molecules can be directionally transported, concentrated and separated within polyacrylamide hydrogel films containing built‐in chemical potential gradients ,.…”

Honeycomb-patterned porous films fabricated via self-organization of Tb complex-loaded amphiphilic copolymers

“…Aer the evaporation of water and solvent, the ordered hexagonal lattice comes into being in order to reduce the free energy. 10,11 Aerward, countless important studies have been reported on porous lms including the hole pattern formation mechanism, [12][13][14][15] choice, design and synthesis of polymers, [16][17][18][19][20][21] effect of solvent and substrate, 22,23 environment conditions, 19,21 the reprocessing methods and applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][24][25][26] and so on. Although the hole pattern formation mechanism is not completely understood at present, this method is known to require precise control over the processing environment conditions, and the polymers used in BFM usually have to be specially designed and synthesized in order to obtain a good quality in pore size and distribution.…”