Continuously Tunable Wettability by Using Surface Patterned Shape Memory Polymers with Giant Deformability

Designing smart surfaces with tunable wettability has drawn much attention in recent years for academic research and practical applications. Most of the previous methods to achieve such surfaces demand some particular materials that inherently have special features or complicated structures which are usually not easy to obtain. A novel strategy to achieve such smart surfaces is proposed by using the surface patterned shape memory polymers of chemically crosslinked polycyclooctene which shows a giant deformability of up to ≈730% strain. The smart surfaces possess the ability to continuously tune the wettability by controlling the recovery temperature and/or time. Coating the modified titanium dioxide nanoparticles onto such surfaces renders the surface superhydrophobicity and expands the tunable range of contact angles (CAs). Theoretical calculations of the CAs at different strains via modified Cassie model well explain the tunable wettability behaviors of such smart surfaces.