Smart Superhydrophobic Shape Memory Adhesive Surface toward Selective Capture/Release of Microdroplets.

Abstract

Controllable manipulation of microdroplets is significant for the microfluidics, biomedical areas, microreactors, and so on; however, until now, reports about no-loss and selective capture/release of different microdroplets are still rare. Herein, we report a new superhydrophobic shape memory adhesive surface that can solve this problem. The surface is prepared by sticking a pillar-structured superhydrophobic polyurethane layer onto a shape memory polyurethane-cellulose nanofiber (PU-CNF) layer. Because of the good shape memory performance of the PU-CNF layer, the obtained surface can memorize and display various microstructure arrangements during the stretching/releasing process. Meanwhile, multiple superhydrophobic adhesive states from low-adhesive rolling performance to high-adhesive pinning performance can be observed on the surface, and all these adhesive states can be reversibly controlled between each other. Based on the smart shape memory ability in surface adhesion, not only traditional in situ capture/release of one microdroplet but also selective capture and release of different microdroplets can be realized. This work reports a new superhydrophobic shape memory adhesive surface; it is envisioned that this smart surface would be a powerful platform for microfluidics systems, complex droplet transportation, biological analysis, and so on.