Superomniphobic Silk Fibroin/Ag Nanowires Membrane for Flexible and Transparent Electronic Sensor.

Abstract

Superwetting surfaces that repel various liquids have been exciting for biomimetic research and have displayed versatile potential applications. Generally, superhydrophobic coatings can allow for droplet rolling off and antifouling, whereas it is a challenge to achieve superomniphobic surfaces with transparency, flexibility, and conductivity. Here, we adopt an effective and simple method to fabricate a superomniphobic, transparent, and flexible smart silk fibroin (SF) membrane by spray-coating long AgNWs dispersed in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), followed by treatment with vacuum drying. The resulting SF/AgNWs membranes are super-repellent to different liquids with low surface tension and water, and demonstrate high contact angles (CAs) more than 150° and low rolling-off angles (RAs) even less than 10°. Moreover, the obtained membranes display superior sensitivity under stretching and bending, as well as intact stability of high transparency, which can be considered as promising flexible sensing electronics to detect human motions under wet conditions.