Tuning the Superhydrophobic Properties of Hierarchical Nano-microstructural Silica Biomorph Arrays Grown at Triphasic Interfaces

The three-dimensional hierarchical morphology of surfaces greatly affects the wettability, absorption and microfabrication properties of their hybrid materials, however few scalable methods exist that controls simultaneously complex geometric shape and spatial scattered location and their physical p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2020-03, Vol.10 (1), p.4596-4596, Article 4596
Main Authors: Xiang, Xu-Fu, Li, Peng-Jie, Liu, Bi-Feng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301
639/925
Carbon dioxide
Cell recognition
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrophobic surfaces
Hydrophobicity
Interfaces
multidisciplinary
Physical properties
Polydimethylsiloxane
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Self-assembly
Silica
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Summary:The three-dimensional hierarchical morphology of surfaces greatly affects the wettability, absorption and microfabrication properties of their hybrid materials, however few scalable methods exist that controls simultaneously complex geometric shape and spatial scattered location and their physical properties tuned. Consequently, this report describes a synthetic strategy that enables the position of well-ordered biomorph nano-microstructures on hydrophobic surfaces to be precisely controlled. The hierarchical architecture can be accurately positioned on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces in an unprecedented level by leveraging a solid/liquid/gas triphase dynamic reaction diffusion system strategy. The effect of salt concentrations, pH, CO 2 levels, temperature and substrate patterning on this self-assembly process has been investigated, enabling protocols to be devised that enables the hydrophobic properties of the hierarchically assembled multiscale microstructures to be tuned as required. This combined top-down/bottom-up approach can be used to produce composites with outstanding hydrophobicity properties, affording superhydrophobic materials that are capable of retaining water droplets on their surfaces, even when the material is inverted by 180°, with a wide range of potential applications in oil/water separation technology and for selective cell recognition in biological systems.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-020-61530-0