Abstract
We demonstrate a transferable device that can turn wettability of surfaces to sticky or slippy, as per requirement. It is composed of polymeric yarn with a fibrous structure, which can be lifted and placed on any surface to render it the unique wettability properties. We introduce Polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) random fiber as biomimetic rose petal surface. When it is decorated with PVDF nanofibers yarns, the random mesh transform from rose petal sticky state into grass leaf slippy state. When it is placed on sticky, hydrophilic metal coin, it converts the surface of the coin to super hydrophobic. Adjustments in the yarn system, like interyarn spacing, can be done in real time to influence its wettability, which is a unique feature. Next, we load the polymer with a photochromic compound for chemical restructuring. It affects the sliding angle of water drop and makes the fibers optically active. We also demonstrate a “water droplets lens” concept that enables erasable writing on photochromic rose petal sticky fibrous surface. The droplet on a highly hydrophobic surface acts as a ball lens to concentrate light onto a hot spot; thereby we demonstrate UV light writing with water lenses and visible light erasing.
Highlights
We demonstrate a transferable device that can turn wettability of surfaces to sticky or slippy, as per requirement
Grass leaf has a Cassie-Baxter www.nature.com/scientificreports surface on which the water drop slides but rose petal surface shows a hybrid of Cassie-Baxter/Wenzel surface where droplets could partly penetrate at least the sublevel of the hierarchical roughness by physical mean or chemical mean and sticks to the petal[10]
PVDF random fiber mat was found to be highly hydrophobic with water drop contact angle of 130 6 3u, which is much higher compared to that found on its film, i.e., 80u
Summary
We demonstrate a transferable device that can turn wettability of surfaces to sticky or slippy, as per requirement. There is a variety of methods available to mimic these structures, which range from templating and molding, plasma etching, electrospinning to acid or solvent treatment and phase separation, besides others[11,12,13,14,15,16] These processes restructure the surface in the form of nanotubes[17,18], bumps[19], fibers[20,21] or spheres[11] etc., which is as important for special wetting characteristics as is its chemical nature[22,23,24]. Coatings with sticky characteristics can be used as a mechanical hand for microdrop delivery[17], as an example, but are still in a state of infancy
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