Slippery Porous-Liquid-Infused Porous Surface (SPIPS) with On-Demand Responsive Switching between "Defensive" and "Offensive" Antifouling Modes

NIR-Driven Self-Healing Phase-Change Solid Slippery Surface with Stability and Promising Antifouling and Anticorrosion Properties

Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) have great potential to replace traditional antifouling coatings due to their efficient, green, and broad-spectrum antifouling performance. However, the lubricant dissipation problem of SLIPS severely restricts its further development and application, and the robust SLIPS continues to be extremely challenging. Here, a composite phase-change lubricant layer consisting of paraffin, silicone oil, and MXene is designed to readily construct a stable and NIR-responsive self-healing phase-change solid slippery surface (PCSSS). Collective results showed that PCSSS could rapidly achieve phase-change transformation and complete self-healing under NIR irradiation and keep stable after high-speed water flushing, centrifugation, and ultrasonic treatment. The antifouling performance of PCSSS evaluated by protein, bacteria, and algae antiadhesion tests demonstrated the adhesion inhibition rate was as high as 99.99%. Moreover, the EIS and potentiodynamic polarization experiments indicated that PCSSS had stable and exceptional corrosion resistance (|Z|0.01Hz = 3.87 × 108 Ω·cm2) and could effectively inhibit microbiologically influenced corrosion. The 90 day actual marine test reveals that PCSSS has remarkable antifouling performance. Therefore, PCSSS presents a novel, facile, and effective strategy to construct a slippery surface with the prospect of facilitating its application in marine antifouling and corrosion protection.

Designing a photocatalytic and self-renewed g-C3N4 nanosheet/poly-Schiff base composite coating towards long-term biofouling resistance

Inhibiting the adhesion and growth of marine microorganisms through photocatalysis is a potentially efficient and environmentally friendly antifouling strategy. However, the undesired "shading effect" caused by resin coatings and microbial deposition reduces the utilization of the catalysts and leads to a failure in the antifouling active substance on the coating surface. Here, we successfully developed a composite coating (DPC-x) combining g-C3N4 nanosheet (g-C-NS) photocatalysts with degradable green poly-Schiff base resins, which integrates the dual functions of enhanced dynamic self-renewal and photocatalytic antibacterial activities towards long-term anti-biofouling. The controllable and complete degradability of the poly-Schiff base polymer chains and the self-renewal mechanism of the DPC-x coating exposed the internal g-C-NS, which provided a constant stream of photocatalytic reactive interfaces for 100% utilization and release of the photocatalysts. g-C-NS were homogeneously dispersed in the degradable resin coating, significantly enhancing and adjusting the self-renewal rate of the poly-Schiff base resin coating in visible light. The degradation reaction rate of DPC-0.2 (20 wt% g-C-NS) was 40 times that of DPC, thus improving the capabilities of surface self-renewal and fouling-release. Due to the synergistic antifouling mechanism of the efficient antibacterial properties and the enhanced degradation/self-renewal, the antimicrobial rates of DPC and DPC-0.2 were 94.58% and 99.31% in the dark, and 98.2% and 99.87% in visible light. DPC-x has excellent all-weather antimicrobial efficacy and could offer a new perspective on eco-friendly marine antifouling strategies.

Biomimetic Slippery Surface with Exclusive Liquid-Repellent and Self-Cleaning Properties for Antifouling

The nature always offers amazing inspiration, where it is highly desirable to endow coatings on marine equipment with powerful functions. An excellent example is slippery zone of Nepenthes pitcher, which possesses novel liquid-repellent and self-cleaning performance. Therefore, this study presents an efficient fabrication method to prepare a novel coating. The coatings were fabricated by designing biomimetic textures extracted from the lunate bodies of slippery zone on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and then grafting Dictyophora indusiata polysaccharide (DIP) modifier. The as-prepared slippery coatings exhibited outstanding antifouling properties against kinds of daily life pollutants such as Chlorella and coffee. This synergistic strategy was proposed combined with environmentally friendly modifier grafting and heterogeneous microstructure on the surface to broaden new probabilities for manufacturing slippery coatings with incredible protective functionality.

Bioinspired Slippery Surfaces for Liquid Manipulation from Tiny Droplet to Bulk Fluid

Slippery surfaces, which originate in nature with special wettability, have attracted considerable attention in both fundamental research and practical applications in a variety of fields due to their unique characteristics of superlow liquid friction and adhesion. Although research on bioinspired slippery surfaces is still in its infancy, it is a rapidly growing and enormously promising field. Herein, a systematic review of recent progress in bioinspired slippery surfaces, beginning with a brief introduction of several typical creatures with slippery property in nature, is presented. Subsequently,this review gives a detailed discussion on the basic concepts of the wetting, friction, and drag from micro- and macro-aspects and focuses on the underlying slippery mechanism. Next, the state-of-the-art developments in three categories of slippery surfaces of air-trapped, liquid-infused, and liquid-like slippery surfaces, including materials, design principles, and preparation methods, are summarized and the emerging applications are highlighted. Finally, the current challenges and future prospects of various slippery surfaces are addressed.

Room-temperature endogenous lubricant-infused slippery surfaces by evaporation induced phase separation

We present a novel approach to fabricate endogenous slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (eSLIPS) at room temperature using an evaporation-induced phase separation process. The ternary coating system, comprising ethylene-propylene copolymer, caprylyl methicone, and n-hexane, forms a porous structure in situ infiltrated with lubricant, resulting in surfaces with remarkable anti-fouling and anti-icing properties.