Patterned Superhydrophobic Surfaces:  Toward a Synthetic Mimic of the Namib Desert Beetle

Abstract

The present study demonstrates a surface structure that mimics the water harvesting wing surface of the Namib Desert beetle. Hydrophilic patterns on superhydrophobic surfaces were created with water/2-propanol solutions of a polyelectrolyte to produce surfaces with extreme hydrophobic contrast. Selective deposition of multilayer films onto the hydrophilic patterns introduces different properties to the area including superhydrophilicity. Potential applications of such surfaces include water harvesting surfaces, controlled drug release coatings, open-air microchannel devices, and lab-on-chip devices.

The superhydrophobicity of polymer surfaces: Recent developments

“…7). [125][126][127] Other natural structures gather water, some spiders' webs use variations in surface structure and surface energy along the fiber to cause water droplets to form at hydrophilic …”

Fabrics with Tunable Oleophobicity

“…Extreme wetting behavior, super-repellency and super-wetting, has recently generated immense commercial and academic interest [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] due to its wide applicability in various fields including the development of self-cleaning surfaces, [11] liquid-liquid separation membranes, [12] and anti-fogging films. [13] Various research groups have also tried to develop surfaces that can effectively switch their surface wetting properties in response to changes in their surrounding environment.…”

Robust superhydrophilic patterning of superhydrophobic ormosil surfaces for high-throughput on-chip screening applications

“…On the other hand, a surface which spreads water and has contact angles less than 10 is known as superhydrophilic. 2 Extreme wettability contrast by combination of superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic regions at the micro scale is desirable for applications such as water harvesting, [3][4][5][6] and microuidics. [7][8][9][10][11][12] In addition, precise control of the wetted and non-wetted patterns on a single surface allows the formation of ordered droplet arrays and easy droplet manipulation as well as immobilization and aliquoting of droplet-dispersed materials including nanoparticles, biomolecules and cells.…”