Transparent Surfaces Inspired by Nature

Motamedi, Mahdi; Warkiani, Majid Ebrahimi; Taylor, Robert A.

doi:10.1002/adom.201800091

Cited by 39 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 258 publications

(281 reference statements)

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“…Both the patterns present a haze <5% in the visible range, with an increase from 1.3% to 2.5% with the increase in the pattern dimension. The large patterns have a larger haze factor as their dimension is closer to the wavelength of the incident light …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of Biomimetic Micropatterned Surfaces by Sol–Gel Dewetting

Colusso

Martucci

Neto

2019

Adv Materials Inter

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Dewetting is a spontaneous phenomenon that occurs when unstable thin liquid films break apart on a non-wettable substrate, driven by unfavorable intermolecular forces at the interface. The Neto group has used dewetting of polymer films extensively in the last decade to generate patterned surfaces for a range of applications, including atmospheric water capture and cell patterning. [16][17][18][19][20][21] Dewetting of metastable thin polymer films (≈100 nm) occurs when the polymer is brought above its glass transition temperature (T g ), by either thermal or solvent annealing, to enable sufficient mobility of the polymer chains. During dewetting, holes appear in the initially uniform film, then grow with time, until eventually all the polymer is accumulated in isolate droplets on the substrate. When the polymer film is brought below its T g , the pattern is frozen in and preserved. [22][23][24][25][26] Spatially controlled alignment of the droplets or confinement of the dewetted areas can be induced by external stimuli such as stamp or probe, or by using prepatterned substrates. [14,[27][28][29] Sol-gel films are much more robust than polymer films as they are mostly inorganic in nature, so can withstand high working temperature and UV irradiation, are harder, and their refractive index and electronic properties can be modulated. [30][31][32][33] In the sol-gel process, inorganic polymers and ceramics are obtained starting from liquid precursors though hydrolysis and condensation reactions that lead the formation of a network structure called "gel.". This gel is then converted into a dense "xerogel" during the drying through expulsion of solvent and collapse of the porous network and eventually converted into a dense ceramic through calcination at high temperature (if required). [34,35] So far, the dewetting of sol-gel films has been studied only in a couple of papers. [36,37] In this paper, we investigated for the first time the dewetting of bilayers of sol-gel films: the top film is hydrophilic (silica) and the bottom one hydrophobic (CH 3silica), with the objective of producing silicate patterns that are both chemical and topographical in nature. The control of the wettability of the surface is obtained by chemical modification of the sol-gel network by using organic-modified silicon precursors with hydrophobic groups. [38,39] The produced patterns, hydrophilic bumps on a hydrophobic background, mimic the exoskeleton of the Namib desert beetle (which has ≈500 µm hydrophilic bumps on a waxy background), [17,40] and could facilitate the nucleation of water droplets via condensation Dewetting of thin polymer films has been extensively investigated as a way to generate patterned surfaces. In this paper, the controlled dewetting of sol-gel thin films induced by solvent annealing is reported. The key factors that control the dewetting process are identified and patterns with tunable diameter between 5 and 80 µm and tunable height between 1 and 10 µm are fabricated on a large scale. By changing the chemistry of the s...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of Biomimetic Micropatterned Surfaces by Sol–Gel Dewetting

Colusso

Martucci

Neto

2019

Adv Materials Inter

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“…Biomimicry is an emerging field with the objective of replicating physical or chemical attributes found in nature to create human-made devices. The development of biomimetic materials and devices has been particularly useful in optics and sensing applications [ 1 , 2 ]. Examples of bioinspired materials include polymer-based biohybrid sensor interfaces [ 3 ], functional nanostructures of S-proteins for breast cancer cell detection [ 4 ], wearable eye health monitoring sensors [ 5 ], anti-Moiré grids with the optoelectronic performance [ 6 ] and SERS substrates inspired by the geometry of lotus seedpod [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cicada Wing Inspired Template-Stripped SERS Active 3D Metallic Nanostructures for the Detection of Toxic Substances

Nair

Gomez-Cruz

Ascanio

et al. 2021

Sensors

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This article introduces a bioinspired, cicada wing-like surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate based on template-stripped crossed surface relief grating (TS-CSRG). The substrate is polarization-independent, has tunable nanofeatures and can be fabricated in a cleanroom-free environment via holographic exposure followed by template-stripping using a UV-curable resin. The bioinspired nanostructures in the substrate are strategically designed to minimize the reflection of light for wavelengths shorter than their periodicity, promoting enhanced plasmonic regions for the Raman excitation wavelength at 632.8 nm over a large area. The grating pitch that enables an effective SERS signal is studied using Rhodamine 6G, with enhancement factors of the order of 1 × 104. Water contact angle measurements reveal that the TS-CSRGs are equally hydrophobic to cicada wings, providing them with potential self-cleaning and bactericidal properties. Finite-difference time-domain simulations are used to validate the nanofabrication parameters and to further confirm the polarization-independent electromagnetic field enhancement of the nanostructures. As a real-world application, label-free detection of melamine up to 1 ppm, the maximum concentration of the contaminant in food permitted by the World Health Organization, is demonstrated. The new bioinspired functional TS-CSRG SERS substrate holds great potential as a large-area, label-free SERS-active substrate for medical and biochemical sensing applications.

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“…Water pollution 1,2 is one of the unstoppable environmental pollutions in the world when the population and industries are nearly uncontrollable growing. Many scientists put their efforts 3 into finding out the renewable materials or recyclable energy systems [4][5][6] for solving the problems of environmental pollution 7 and the high energy consumption. 8,9 Since pure water and electric power are the products of fuel cells, 10 water splitting cells have been designed to provide hydrogen and oxygen gases by splitting waste water, 9,11,12 which is seen as the best solution for solving the problems of water pollutions and replacing the fossil energy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entangled spintronic modulated high‐performance Ce ₂ O ₃ small polaron surface state‐based water splitting cells

Lai

2021

Int J Energy Res

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High-performance spintronic water-splitting devices with high applied power, spintronic population under room temperature have been demonstrated by the Ce 2 O 3 small polaron surface state-based spintronic injection system. Spintronic entanglement tomography decrypts the information about ultrahigh-energy conversion efficiency as high as 140% and the optimal applied voltage 0.682 V.Ce +3 ions demonstrate unpaired d orbital for achieving spin-orbital coupling by accepting the quantum information of angular momentum, spin, and orbital from incident laser light which modulated by ħ + ħ (""), ħ + (− ħ) (#"), ħ -(−ħ) ("#) and (−ħ) + (−ħ) (##) angular momentum. A practical way is been provided for achieving the spintronic entanglement in water splitting devices by describing the correlations between spintronic that interact and then separate. Thus, the quantum computing algorithm is encrypted and well decrypted by spin-orbital coupling. Besides, in this research, we demonstrated an ultrahigh energy conversion water splitting cells with spintronic injection and spintronic entanglement. Comparing with theory power for water splitting, the spintronic entanglement water splitting devices in our research saved 30% power to achieve water splitting and hydrogen generation.

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Transparent Surfaces Inspired by Nature

Cited by 39 publications

References 258 publications

Fabrication of Biomimetic Micropatterned Surfaces by Sol–Gel Dewetting

Fabrication of Biomimetic Micropatterned Surfaces by Sol–Gel Dewetting

Cicada Wing Inspired Template-Stripped SERS Active 3D Metallic Nanostructures for the Detection of Toxic Substances

Entangled spintronic modulated high‐performance Ce ₂ O ₃ small polaron surface state‐based water splitting cells

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Transparent Surfaces Inspired by Nature

Cited by 39 publications

References 258 publications

Fabrication of Biomimetic Micropatterned Surfaces by Sol–Gel Dewetting

Fabrication of Biomimetic Micropatterned Surfaces by Sol–Gel Dewetting

Cicada Wing Inspired Template-Stripped SERS Active 3D Metallic Nanostructures for the Detection of Toxic Substances

Entangled spintronic modulated high‐performance Ce 2 O 3 small polaron surface state‐based water splitting cells

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Entangled spintronic modulated high‐performance Ce ₂ O ₃ small polaron surface state‐based water splitting cells