Fabrication and Applications of Nature-Inspired Surfaces with Selective Wettability

Inspired by the Stenocora beetle, selective wettability surfaces incorporate alternating wettable and nonwettable surface features that have received substantial attention over the past two decades. These surfaces are sought after for their very promising potential to drive progress in numerous application fields, including ecological protection, biomedical sciences, and industrial technologies. However, despite ongoing efforts to produce such surfaces in commercial quantities, understanding their basic fabrication concepts for practical applications can be challenging, especially for novices, given the vast technical literature in this area. This review, therefore, aims to elucidate the principles of wettability, along with the evolution of selective wettability surfaces and their uses. Beginning with a summary of the essential history and theory of wetting, we explore naturally occurring surfaces that have influenced wetting studies. We then detail state-of-the-art methods for fabricating these unique biwetting surfaces and show how contemporary science employs such designs in solving real-world problems. Finally, we offer an outlook for future research prospects on scalable, printing-based fabrication methods.