Biomimicking wetting properties of spider web from Linothele megatheloides with electrospun fibers

Abstract

In this study, we showed a simple approach to biomimic the wetting properties of spider webs, which can be mainly attributed to the geometry of fibers. We created biomimetic fibers using electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with a wrinkled surface similar to the morphology of spider silk bundles produced by Linothele megatheloides. Without any chemical modification and copying the silk bundles geometry, we successfully translated the similar hydrophobic properties to an electrospun network of fibers. The novelty of this approach lays in obtaining similar macroscale roughness parameters, responsible here for wetting contact angles, due to the substitution of spider silk bundles with individual wrinkled electrospun fibers. The presented methods open new creative solutions for manufacturing anti-wetting surfaces.