Bioinspired Capillary Transistors.

Inspired by the unidirectional liquid spreading on Nepenthes peristome, Araucaria leaf, butterfly wings, etc., various microfluidic devices have been developed for water collection, irrigation, physical/chemical reaction, and oil-water separation. Despite extensive progress, most natural and artificial structures fail to enhance the Laplace pressure difference or capillary force, thus suffering from a low unidirectional capillary height (<30 mm).

Direct Laser Writing Photonic Crystal Hydrogels with a Supramolecular Sacrificial Scaffold.

Photonic crystal hydrogels (PCHs), with smart stimulus-responsive abilities, have been widely exploited as colorimetric sensors for years. However, the current fabrication technologies are mostly applicable to produce PCHs with simple geometries at the sub-millimeter scale, limiting the introduction of structural design into PCH sensors as well as the accompanied advanced applications. This paper reports the microfabrication of three-dimensional (3D) PCHs with the help of supramolecular agarose PCH as a sacrificial scaffold by two-photon lithography (TPL).

Migration of Liquid Bridges at the Interface of Spheres and Plates with an Imposed Thermal Gradient.

In this paper, we experimentally investigate the migration of liquid bridges at the interface of spheres and plates with an imposed thermal gradient. The key influencing factors of interface gap, sphere material and diameter, liquid viscosity, and thermal gradient on the migration behaviors are highlighted. Furthermore, the physical mechanism of this intriguing interfacial phenomenon is numerically unraveled.

Manipulating thermocapillary migration via superoleophobic surfaces with wedge shaped superoleophilic grooves.

Hypothesis: Thermocapillary migration is a phenomenon that liquid droplets can move from warm to cold regions on a nonuniformly heated surface. We expect to construct functional surfaces to manipulate the migration of liquid lubricants on rubbing surfaces.

Experiments: Superoleophobic surfaces with wedge shaped superoleophilic grooves of varying geometrical parameters are fabricated, and migration experiments of typical liquid lubricants are performed on the designed surfaces.