Controlled directional spreading of a droplet on a smart high-adhesion surface was made possible by simply controlling anodic oxidation. The wettability gradient of the surface was controlled from 0.14 to 3.38° mm(-1) by adjusting the anodic oxidation conditions. When a water droplet made contact with the substrate, the droplet immediately spread in the direction of the wettability gradient but did not move in other directions, such as those perpendicular to the gradient direction, even when the surface was turned upside down. The spreading behavior was mainly controlled by the wettability gradient. Surfaces with a V- or inverse-V-shaped wettability gradient were also formed by the same method, and two droplets on these surfaces spread either toward or away from one another as designed. This method could be used to oxidize many conductive substrates (e.g., copper, aluminum) to form surfaces with variously shaped wettability gradients. It has potential for application in microfluidic devices.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201403246 | DOI Listing |
Small
January 2025
College of Polymer Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China.
Solar desalination shows promise in tackling freshwater shortages, but challenges arise from the trade-off between water transportation and heat supply, affecting evaporators' efficiency and salt resistance. Additionally, intermittent nature of solar radiation significantly diminishes overall evaporative performance. This study presents dual-gradient heating solar evaporator for efficient desalination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch (Wash D C)
January 2025
School of Chemistry and Biological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China.
The management of wound exudate is of vital importance for wound healing. Exudate accumulation around wound prolongs inflammation and hinders healing. Although traditional dressings can absorb wound exudate, they are unable to drain exudate in time, often resulting in a poor feature with wound healing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNano Lett
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, Institute of Biomimetic Materials & Chemistry, Anhui Engineering Laboratory of Biomimetic Materials, Division of Nanomaterials & Chemistry, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
The development of viscous-crude oil and water separation technology is important for overcoming pollution caused by oil spills. Although some separators responding to light, electric, and temperature have been proposed, their poor structural homogeneity and inferior controllability, together with weak capillary forces, hinder the rapid salvage of viscous crude oil. Herein, a Joule-heated hydrophobic porous oil/water separator is reported, which has advantages of low energy consumption (169.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2025
School of Mechanical Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
Inspired by the adhesion differences on the surfaces of fresh and dried rose petals, a rose bionic self-cleaning fog collector (RBSC) was designed and prepared to realize a self-driven fog harvesting function. The droplet detachment iteration rate was revealed by the regulating mechanism of the surface adhesion force of the RBSC and the influence of bionic texture parameters, as demonstrated through the fog harvesting experiment and droplet detachment failure analysis. Through the surface adhesion force regulation, the probability of droplet dissipation with the airflow is reduced by increasing the falling droplets' mass, and the single surface fog capture efficiency is up to 740 mg cm h.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Colloid Interface Sci
January 2025
UMR1114 EMMAH INRAE-AU, 228, Route de L'Aérodrome, Avignon, F84000, France. Electronic address:
Hypothesis: Water drop infiltration into a thin amphiphilic porous medium is influenced by wettability. Due to the reorganization of amphiphilic matter in contact with water, polar interaction changes the wettability in the bulk porous medium and at the liquid/porous substrate interface. To model out of equilibrium water transfer, we propose a thermodynamics approach derived from Onsager's principle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!