Functionalized Surfaces with Tailored Wettability Determine Influenza A Infectivity.

Surfaces contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms contribute to their transmission and spreading. The development of "active surfaces" that can reduce or eliminate this contamination necessitates a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of interactions between the surfaces and the microorganisms. Few studies have shown that, among the different surface characteristics, the wetting properties play an important role in reducing virus infectivity.

Superomniphobic, transparent, and antireflection surfaces based on hierarchical nanostructures.

Optical surfaces that can repel both water and oil have much potential for applications in a diverse array of technologies including self-cleaning solar panels, anti-icing windows and windshields for automobiles and aircrafts, low-drag surfaces, and antismudge touch screens. By exploiting a hierarchical geometry made of two-tier nanostructures, primary nanopillars of length scale ∼ 100-200 nm superposed with secondary branching nanostructures made of nanoparticles of length scale ∼ 10-30 nm, we have achieved static contact angles of more than 170° and 160° for water and oil, respectively, while the sliding angles were lower than 4°. At the same time, with respect to the initial flat bare glass, the nanotextured surface presented significantly reduced reflection (<0.

Monolithically integrated micro- and nanostructured glass surface with antiglare, antireflection, and superhydrophobic properties.

Hierarchical micro- and nanostructured surfaces have previously been made using a variety of materials and methods, including particle deposition, polymer molding, and the like. These surfaces have attracted a wide variety of interest for applications including reduced specular reflection and superhydrophobic surfaces. To the best of our knowledge, this paper reports the first monolithic, hierarchically structured glass surface that combines micro- and nanoscale surface features to simultaneously generate antiglare (AG), antireflection (AR), and superhydrophobic properties.

Ultrastable and atomically smooth ultrathin silver films grown on a copper seed layer.

An effective method to deposit atomically smooth ultrathin silver (Ag) films by employing a 1 nm copper (Cu) seed layer is reported. The inclusion of the Cu seed layer leads to the deposition of films with extremely low surface roughness (<0.5 nm), while it also reduces the minimum thickness required to obtain a continuous Ag film (percolation thickness) to 3 nm compared to 6 nm without the seed layer.