Ultra-transparent slippery surface

Abstract

Endoscopes are used for diagnosis and minimally invasive treatment of the interior regions of the body. The visual fields of endoscopes, especially angioscopes, are often obscured due to the contamination with biological fluids. To avoid the biological fouling, the lubricant liquid infused slippery surfaces with excellent antifouling property have been proposed and fabricated by previous work. Although the slippery surfaces can be transparent, the transmittance is not comparable with bare glass lens, which limits their optical applications. In contrast, nano-structured surfaces, which could eliminate reflection, exhibit excellent transmittance (~98.5%) and antireflection properties for lens applications. However, the nano-structures with large specific surface area increase biofouling, which induces vision loss and hemocompatibility problems in vivo. Herein, we develop an ultra-transparent and antifouling slippery surface on nano-structure glass. It is achieved by infusing lubricant oil on the fluorinated glass surface with semi-hexagonal nanoholes. This semi-hexagonal nanohole structures on the one hand stabilize the lubricant phase by capillary force, on the other hand effectively eliminate reflection. Our ultra-transparent slippery surface exhibits excellent hemocompatibility and antifouling property, as well as the stable transmittance even after being immersed into the whole blood for multiple cycles. This novel functional surface provides new opportunities in design of endoscopes, especially angioscopes, and offers enormous potential for disease diagnosis and treatment.