Bioinspired superwettability: From interfacial materials to chemistry

Abstract

<p indent="0mm">Interfacial wettability is one of the fundamental problems in material science. The research on wettability regulation is of great significance in exploring new knowledge and creating new applications. Learning from nature, Prof. Jiang has summarized three basic principles of superwettability: (1) The static wetting is determined by the cooperative effect of nanostructure and surface energy; (2) the transition point of the superlyophilicity and superlyophobicity on the nanostructure is the lyophilicity-lyophobicity limitation; (3) the direction of liquid transport is regulated by chemical composition gradient, rough gradient, curvature gradient, etc. Based on these principles, he further extended the superwettability interfacial material systems to interfacial chemistry. He established a superwetting interfacial material system including 64 combinations, and expanded to various liquid systems with different pressure and temperature ranges, leading and promoting the global development of this field. In this paper, we will introduce the design of superwetting interface and the new law of liquid/gas/solid three-phase interfacial wettability. Based upon the new law of three-phase interfacial wettability, we state the application of water-oil separation, pesticide spraying, electrochemical sensors, and photoelectric material patterning. And the recent research and application prospect in the field of quantum-confined superfluid are discussed. In the part of water-oil separation, focusing on the key issue of constructing membrane materials with both fine pore structure and super-wetting properties, without changing the traditional separation membrane preparation process, the micro-nano multi-level structure of the membrane surface is constructed through structure-induced tuning, and the surface is chemically modified. Synergistic action is used to realize the regulation of membrane transport behavior of water droplets or oil droplets, and a series of novel structural membrane separation materials have been successfully prepared, realizing high-precision and high-throughput separation of oil-water emulsions under low driving pressure. In-depth research on the relationship between the molecular structure of surfactants and the kinetic behavior and thermodynamic state of droplets on specially wetted surfaces has led to the discovery of a very cheap anionic surfactant (sulfosuccinic acid) capable of forming vesicles. Sodium dioctyl ester (AOT) can inhibit the ejection and sputtering of pesticide droplets on the surface of superhydrophobic plants at a very low concentration (3/1000 mass concentration). Aiming at the historical problem of “deficient oxygen” during the use of electrochemical enzyme sensors, we proposed and constructed an oxygen-enriched enzyme electrode with solid/liquid/gas three-phase coexistence. The three-phase electrode will greatly improve the detection performance of existing sensors, has extremely broad application prospects in future disease monitoring, and provides a new design idea for the development of high-efficiency enzyme sensors. We exploit the principle of “liquid bridge confinement assembly” by inducing site-specific condensation and crystallization of small organic molecules by exploiting asymmetric wettability interfaces, fabricating one-dimensional arrays of organic polymer semiconductors by exploiting highly adhesive three-phase interfaces, and exploiting superwetting The micro-nano interface controls the three-dimensional dewetting process and realizes the preparation of highly oriented one-dimensional single-crystal nanowires. These three methods are the key issues to realize one-dimensional micro-nano materials from material preparation to device application. Since 2008, we have successfully achieved the fabrication of smart nanopores that mimic ion channels in biomembranes. This channel has properties similar to biological ion channel switching, selection and rectification. Furthermore, by imitating the mechanism of energy conversion in living systems, the design of energy conversion systems driven by chemical potential gradients based on biomimetic nanopores and the design of nanopore-based sensing devices are realized. Since 2018, we focused on dynamic superwetting. The concept of ionic/molecular superfluid is proposed, which promotes the understanding of the realization of ultra-low energy conversion and information transmission in biological systems and provides new ideas for the study of ultra-low energy chemical synthesis in biological systems. It is believed that future research on ionic/molecular superfluidity will promote the development of neuroscience and brain science, develop quantum ion technology, develop future chemical and chemical reactors with high flux, high selectivity and low energy consumption, and will produce a series of disruptive technologies.