Smart Liquid Transport on Dual Biomimetic Surface via Temperature Fluctuation Control

Abstract

AbstractMicrodevices that manipulate fluids to transport in a predefined direction and to switch flow directions under temperature stimuli are fundamental to the intelligent control of biomedical devices, thermal managements, lab‐on‐a‐chip, etc. Despite current advances in controlling drop transport, the amplitude of liquid motion is still limited with a low speed, and the flow direction is not well controlled because of the pinning of contact lines on surface defects. Learning from nature, here, two bioinspired principles derived from the peristome surface of the pitcher plant and the beak of the shorebird are fused into a composite, and a peristome–beak mimetic surface is fabricated with flow direction switching between uni‐ and bidirections under temperature fluctuations. Significantly, deposited water can intelligently find the transport path by itself on temperature‐patterned surface. This smart peristome–beak mimetic surface would extend the bioinspired design with multi‐integrations and find use in medical, microfluidic, and heat‐transfer systems.