Nanoengineered Superhydrophobic Surfaces of Aluminum with Extremely Low Bacterial Adhesivity

Recent developments in smart antibacterial surfaces to inhibit biofilm formation and bacterial infections

Since their development over 70 years, antibiotics are still the most effective strategy to treat bacterial biofilms and infections.

Hierarchical Superhydrophobic Surfaces with Micropatterned Nanowire Arrays for High-Efficiency Jumping Droplet Condensation

Self-propelled droplet jumping on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces is of interest for a variety of industrial applications including self-cleaning, water harvesting, power generation, and thermal management systems. However, the uncontrolled nucleation-induced Wenzel state of condensed droplets at large surface subcooling (high heat flux) leads to the formation of unwanted large pinned droplets, which results in the flooding phenomenon and greatly degrades the heat transfer performance. In this work, we present a novel strategy to manipulate droplet behaviors during the process from the droplet nucleation to growth and departure through a combination of spatially controlling initial nucleation for mobile droplets by closely spaced nanowires and promoting the spontaneous outward movement of droplets for rapid removal using micropatterned nanowire arrays. Through the optical visualization experiments and heat transfer tests, we demonstrate greatly improved condensation heat transfer characteristics on the hierarchical superhydrophobic surface including the higher density of microdroplets, smaller droplet departure radius, 133% wider range of surface subcooling for droplet jumping, and 37% enhancement in critical heat flux for jumping droplet condensation, compared to the-state-of-art jumping droplet condensation on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces. The excellent water repellency of such hierarchical superhydrophobic surfaces can be promising for many potential applications, such as anti-icing, antifogging, water desalination, and phase-change heat transfer.

Organic Solvent-Free Fabrication of Durable and Multifunctional Superhydrophobic Paper from Waterborne Fluorinated Cellulose Nanofiber Building Blocks

In view of a great demand for paper-based technologies, nonwettable fibrous substrates with excellent durability have drawn much attention in recent years. In this context, the use of cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), the smallest unit of cellulosic substrates (5-20 nm wide and 500 nm to several microns in length), to design waterproof paper can be an economical and smart approach. In this study, an eco-friendly and facile methodology to develop a multifunctional waterproof paper via the fabrication of fluoroalkyl functionalized CNFs in the aqueous medium is presented. This strategy avoids the need for organic solvents, thereby minimizing cost as well as reducing safety and environmental concerns. Besides, it widens the applicability of such materials as nanocellulose-based aqueous coatings on hard and soft substrates including paper, in large areas. Water droplets showed a contact angle of 160° (±2°) over these surfaces and rolled off easily. While native CNFs are extremely hydrophilic and can be dispersed in water easily, these waterborne fluorinated CNFs allow the fabrication of a superhydrophobic film that does not redisperse upon submersion in water. Incorporated chemical functionalities provide excellent durability toward mechanochemical damages of relevance to daily use such as knife scratch, sand abrasion, spillage of organic solvents, etc. Mechanical flexibility of the chemically modified CNF composed paper remains intact despite its enhanced mechanical strength, without additives. Superhydrophobicity induced excellent microbial resistance of the waterproof paper which expands its utility in various paper-based technologies. This includes waterproof electronics, currency, books, etc., where the integrity of the fibers, as demonstrated here, is a much-needed criterion.

Salvinia-Effect-Inspired "Sticky" Superhydrophobic Surfaces by Meniscus-Confined Electrodeposition

Inspired by the Salvinia effect, we report the fabrication and characterization of a novel "sticky" superhydrophobic surface sustaining a Cassie-Baxter wetting state for water droplets with high contact angles but strong solid-liquid retention. Unlike superhydrophobic surfaces mimicking the lotus or petal effect, whose hydrophobicity and droplet retention are typically regulated by hierarchical micro- and nanostructures made of a homogeneous material with the same surface energy, our superhydrophobic surface merely requires singular microstructures covered with a hydrophobic coating but creatively coupled with hydrophilic tips with different surface energy. Hydrophilic tips are selectively formed by meniscus-confined electrodeposition of a metal (e.g., nickel) layer on top of hydrophobic microstructures. During the electrodeposition process, the superhydrophobic surface retains its plastron so that the electrolyte cannot penetrate into the cavity of hydrophobic microstructures, consequently making the electrochemical reaction between solid and electrolyte occur only on the tip. In contrast to typical superhydrophobic surfaces where droplets are highly mobile, the "sticky" superhydrophobic surface allows a water droplet to have strong local pinning and solid-liquid retention on the hydrophilic tips, which is of great significance in many droplet behaviors such as evaporation.

Natural and bioinspired nanostructured bactericidal surfaces

Bacterial antibiotic resistance is becoming more widespread due to excessive use of antibiotics in healthcare and agriculture. At the same time the development of new antibiotics has effectively ground to a hold. Chemical modifications of material surfaces have poor long-term performance in preventing bacterial build-up and hence approaches for realising bactericidal action through physical surface topography have become increasingly important in recent years. The complex nature of the bacteria cell wall interactions with nanostructured surfaces represents many challenges while the design of nanostructured bactericidal surfaces is considered. Here we present a brief overview of the bactericidal behaviour of naturally occurring and bio-inspired nanostructured surfaces against different bacteria through the physico-mechanical rupture of the cell wall. Many parameters affect this process including the size, shape, density, rigidity/flexibility and surface chemistry of the surface nanotextures as well as factors such as bacteria specificity (e.g. gram positive and gram negative) and motility. Different fabrication methods for such bactericidal nanostructured surfaces are summarised.