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Flexible Tri-switchable Wettability Surface for Versatile Droplet Manipulations.

Yuegan Song^1,2, Yanlei Hu², Yachao Zhang²

¹School of Manufacture Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Testing Technology for Manufacturing Process, Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, P. R. China.

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

|August 8, 2022

Summary

Researchers developed a novel smart surface with three tunable wetting states for precise droplet manipulation. This breakthrough enables advanced functionalities like self-cleaning and directional liquid transport in microfluidic devices.

Keywords:

femtosecond laser in situ switching multifunctional device tensile force tri-switchable wettability surface

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Surface Science
Nanotechnology

Background:

Smart surfaces with tunable wettability offer advanced functionalities beyond fixed surfaces.
Current limitations include imprecise control over surface geometry and conventional switching modes for wettability.
Achieving reversible switching between multiple wetting states remains a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a novel tri-switchable wettability surface with in situ switching capabilities for droplet manipulation.
To overcome the limitations of conventional dual-property wetting systems.
To demonstrate versatile droplet manipulation for microfluidic applications.

Main Methods:

Fabrication of a smart surface using femtosecond laser direct writing on a stretchable substrate with a micron column array.
Tuning surface morphology through tensile properties to achieve diverse wetting performances.
Development of a multifunctional device for in situ droplet manipulation.

Main Results:

Successfully created a tri-switchable wettability surface with distinct wetting behaviors (lotus-like, rice-leaf-like anisotropy, rose-petal-like).
Demonstrated rapid and reversible switching between multiple wetting states.
Enabled in situ droplet manipulations including self-cleaning, directional transport, capture, vertical transport, and release.

Conclusions:

The novel tri-switchable surface expands the capabilities of smart surfaces beyond dual-property systems.
The developed technology offers versatile droplet manipulation for microfluidic applications.
This work paves the way for advanced functionalities in tunable wettability surfaces.