Anti-fogging/dry-dust transparent superhydrophobic surfaces based on liquid-like molecule brush modified nanofiber cluster structures.

Transparent protective coatings capable of preventing fog and dust accumulation have broad application prospect in photovoltaic systems, optical devices and consumer electronics. Although a number of superhydrophobic coatings have been developed for self-cleaning purpose over the past three decades, there is still a lack of surfaces that can simultaneously possess high transparency, remarkable superhydrophobicity, and excellent fog and dust resistance. In this study, we have prepared surfaces featuring sub-wavelength nanofiber cluster structures through a facile plasma etching method, and further modified the surface with liquid-like perfluoropolyether (PFPE) brushes.

Design of highly robust super-liquid-repellent surfaces that can resist high-velocity impact of low-surface-tension liquids.

Super-liquid-repellent surfaces capable of preventing wetting with various liquids have tremendous application. However, high liquid repellency relies on surface texturing to minimize the solid-liquid interfacial contact, which generally results in impaired interface robustness and pressure resistance. Consequently, the surface tends to undergo a Cassie-Baxter to Wenzel wetting transition and loses liquid repellency under high-velocity liquid impact, especially for low-surface-tension liquids.

Metal-Stabilized Thiyl Radicals Design Inspired by Elemental Periodic Extension Notion for Ligand-Based Alkene Addition.

Inspired by alkene addition to the Ru and Re tris(thiolate) complexes via carbon-sulfur bond formation/cleavage reactions along with a periodic extension catalysis notion, a comparative study of the electronic structures, mechanisms, and reactivities for ethylene addition to the Os and Tc tris(thiolate) complexes was performed by DFT and high-level ab initio quantum calculations. The oxidized Os and Tc complexes were revealed to exhibit sufficient radical characters on the ligands to support their reaction with ethylene, whereas neutral Tc tris(thiolate) complex featuring little thiyl radical character renders no reactivity toward ethylene. Differential reactivities of these tris(thiolate) complexes was deemed to derive from the synergy of the thiyl radical character, the electronegativity, the row, and the charge.

Whether and When Superhydrophobic/Superoleophobic Surfaces Are Fingerprint Repellent.

Driven by the ever-increasing demand for fingerprint-resistant techniques in modern society, numerous researches have proposed to develop innovative antifingerprint coatings based on superhydrophobic/superoleophobic surface design. However, whether superhydrophobic/superoleophobic surfaces have favorable repellency to the microscopic fingerprint is in fact an open question. Here, we establish a reliable method that enables evaluating the antifingerprint capability of various surfaces in a quantitative way.

Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic porous reduced graphene oxide/polycarbonate monoliths for high-efficiency oil/water separation.

Superhydrophobic and superoleophilic porous reduced graphene oxide/polycarbonate (RGO/PC) monoliths with novel micro-nanoscale binary structure were first fabricated by thermally impacted nonsolvent induced phase separation (TINIPS) method. Owing to the unique pore structure, the porous monoliths possessed high specific surface area (137.19m/g) and porosity (91.