Scalable and Heavy Foam Functionalization by Electrode‐Inspired Sticky Jammed Fluids for Efficient Indoor Air‐Quality Management

Abstract

Functionalization of polymer foams by surface coating is of great interest for advanced flow‐interactive materials working with well‐controlled 3D open channels. However, realizing heavy functional coating via a fast and recyclable way remains a big challenge. Here, inspired by the battery electrodes, we propose a scalable mechanic‐assisted heavy coating strategy based on the design of sticky jammed fluid (SJF) to conquer the above challenge. Similar to the electrode slurry, the SJF is dominated by a high concentration of active material (≥20 wt% of active carbon, for instance) uniformly dispersed in a protein binder solution. Due to the sticky and solid‐rich nature of the SJF, one can realize a high coating efficiency of 60 wt% gain per coating. The critical factors controlling the coating processing and quality are further identified and discussed. Furthermore, the functionalized foam is demonstrated as a high‐performance shape‐customizable toxic gas remover, which can absorb formaldehyde very efficiently at different circumstances, including static adsorption, flow‐based filtration, and source interception. Finally, the foam skeleton and the active materials are easily recycled by a facile solvent treatment. This study may inspire new scalable way for fast, heavy, and customizable functionalization of polymeric foams.

Biomimetic Microadhesion Guided Instant Spinning

“…Here, a toy bus is employed to scale up the MAG spinning with the help of only polymer foams. Polymeric foams are well-controlled porous materials with unique mechanical properties . For the MAG spinning, polymer foams can be employed as a unique substrate to generate both microdroplet and high-density microtips (Figures b and S9).…”

“…Polymeric foams are well-controlled porous materials with unique mechanical properties. 34 For the MAG spinning, polymer foams can be employed as a unique substrate to generate both microdroplet and high-density microtips (Figures 5b and S9). The fiber diameter can also be controlled by the skeleton size of the polymer foams.…”