Abstract
A quickly tunable wettability pattern plays an important role in regulating the surface behavior of liquids. Light irradiation can effectively control the pattern to achieve a specific wettability pattern on the photoresponsive material. However, metal oxide materials based on light adjustable wettability have a low regulation efficiency. In this paper, zinc (Zn) superhydrophobic surfaces can be obtained by femtosecond-laser-ablated microholes. Owing to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation increasing the surface energy of Zn and heating water temperature decreasing the surface energy of water, the wettability of Zn can be quickly tuned photothermally. Then, the Zn superhydrophobic surfaces can be restored by heating in the dark. Moreover, by tuning the pattern of UV irradiation, a specific wettability pattern can be transferred by the Zn microholes, which has a potential application value in the field of new location-controlled micro-/nanofluidic devices, such as microreactors and lab-on-chip devices.
Highlights
In nature, the lotus has excellent superhydrophobic surfaces [1]
The superhydrophobic Zn surface must be irradiated by UV light for 24 h to become a quasi-superhydrophilic surface, and the quasi-superhydrophilic surface must be placed in a dark environment for 7 d to become a superhydrophobic surface
To achieve a quickly tunable wettability pattern, in the work described in this paper, a femtosecond laser was used to fabricate microholes on Zn foil placed in the dark and heated at 100 ◦ C for 12 h to obtain a superhydrophobic surface
Summary
The lotus has excellent superhydrophobic surfaces [1]. After long-term research, it has been determined that in the characterization of superhydrophobic surfaces, they must have a certain rough structure and low surface energy [2]. Tian et al [15] used UV light to irradiate a stainless-steel mesh covered with ZnO nanorods to achieve regulation between superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces. Liu et al [17] realized the rapid regulation between superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic aluminum (Al) surfaces by adjusting the temperature of the Al surface and the pressure between the water and Al, and still achieved excellent recoverability, stability, and repeatability after 10 cycles. To achieve a quickly tunable wettability pattern, in the work described in this paper, a femtosecond laser was used to fabricate microholes on Zn foil placed in the dark and heated at 100 ◦ C for 12 h to obtain a superhydrophobic surface. This method has potential applications in new location-controlled micro-/nanofluidic devices, such as microreactors and lab-on-chip devices
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