Slippery Lubricant-infused Surfaces Research Articles

Molecular Interaction Mechanisms Between Lubricant-Infused Slippery Surfaces and Mussel-Inspired Polydopamine Adhesive and DOPA Moiety.

Lubricant-infused slippery surfaces have recently emerged as promising antifouling coatings, showing potential against proteins, cells, and marine mussels. However, a comprehensive understanding of the molecular binding behaviors and interaction strength of foulants to these surfaces is lacking. In this work, mussel-inspired chemistry based on catechol-containing chemicals including 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) and polydopamine (PDA) is employed to investigate the antifouling performance and repellence mechanisms of fluorinated-based slippery surface, and the correlated interaction mechanisms are probed using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Intermolecular force measurements and deposition experiments between PDA and the surface reveal the ability of lubricant film to inhibit the contact of PDA particles with the substrate. Moreover, the binding mechanisms and bond dissociation energy between a single DOPA moiety and the lubricant-infused slippery surface are quantitatively investigated employing single-molecule force spectroscopy based on AFM (SM-AFM), which reveal that the infused lubricant layer can remarkably influence the dissociation forces and weaken the binding strength between DOPA and underneath per-fluorinated monolayer surface. This work provides new nanomechanical insights into the fundamental antifouling mechanisms of the lubricant-infused slippery surfaces against mussel-derived adhesive chemicals, with important implications for the design of lubricant-infused materials and other novel antifouling platforms for various bioengineering and engineering applications.

Room-temperature endogenous lubricant-infused slippery surfaces by evaporation induced phase separation.

We present a novel approach to fabricate endogenous slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (eSLIPS) at room temperature using an evaporation-induced phase separation process. The ternary coating system, comprising ethylene-propylene copolymer, caprylyl methicone, and n-hexane, forms a porous structure in situ infiltrated with lubricant, resulting in surfaces with remarkable anti-fouling and anti-icing properties.

Simple fabrication of anisotropic slippery lubricant-infused surface for directional transportation and anti-corrosion by metal-metal laminated composites

Slippery lubricant-infused surfaces with anisotropy for directional transportation have been widely researched and fabricated. However, the preparation of the required surface morphology remains complex and challenging. Inspired by the laminated structure found on natural shell nacre and slippery characteristics of nepenthes, a simple and universal method was provided to fabricate anisotropic slippery lubricant-infused surface. 304/TC4 metal-metal laminated composites were prepared by diffusion bonding 304 stainless steel and TC4 titanium alloy foils. A regular micro array with grooves was obtained through simple chemical etching. The widths of grooves and bulges, as well as the depths of grooves could be adjusted as needed. After the chemical modification, the lubricant was infused into grooves to obtain anisotropic slippery lubricant-infused surfaces. The directional transportations along the grooves of water droplet in air and bubbles underwater were achieved on the fabricated surfaces. Furthermore, the achieved surfaces demonstrated outstanding performance in anti-corrosion and anti-fouling. A noteworthy advantage of using laminated composites to fabricate anisotropic slippery lubricant-infused surfaces lies in its simplicity, universality, and repeatability. Based on the previous reports about laminated composites, the structure with grooves can been obtained by simple chemical etching. This method is suitable for various materials, including metal, ceramic, carbon material, and polymers. It has great potential application in water collection, directional transportations, anti-corrosion and anti-fouling.

Heterogenous Slippery Surfaces: Enabling Spontaneous and Rapid Transport of Viscous Liquids with Viscosities Exceeding 10 000 mPa s.

Superhydrophobic and slippery lubricant-infused surfaces have garnered significant attention for their potential to passively transport low-viscosity liquids like water (1 mPa s). Despite exciting progress, these designs have proven ineffective for transporting high-viscosity liquids such as polydimethylsiloxane (5500 mPa s) due to their inherent limitations imposed by the homogenous surface design, resulting in high viscous drags and compromised capillary forces. Here, a heterogenous water-infused divergent surface (WIDS) is proposed that achieves spontaneous, rapid, and long-distance transport of viscous liquids. WIDS reduces viscous drag by spatially isolating the viscous liquids and surface roughness through its heterogenous, slippery topological design, and generates capillary forces through its heterogenous wetting distributions. The essential role of surface heterogeneity in viscous liquid transport is theoretically and experimentally verified. Remarkably, such a heterogenous paradigm enables transporting liquids with viscosities exceeding 12 500 mPa s, which is two orders of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art techniques. Furthermore, this heterogenous design is generic for various viscous liquids and can be made flexible, making it promising for various systems that require viscous liquid management, such as micropatterning.

Silicone-Based Lubricant-Infused Slippery Coating Covalently Bound to Aluminum Substrates for Underwater Applications.

Wetting of solid surfaces is crucial for biological and industrial processes but is also associated with several harmful phenomena such as biofouling and corrosion that limit the effectiveness of various technologies in aquatic environments. Despite extensive research, these challenges remain critical today. Recently, we have developed a facile UV-grafting technique to covalently attach silicone-based coatings to solid substrates. In this study, the grafting process was evaluated as a function of UV exposure time on aluminum substrates. While short-time exposure to UV light results in the formation of lubricant-infused slippery surfaces (LISS), a flat, nonporous variant of slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces, longer exposure leads to the formation of semi-rigid cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coatings, both covalently bound to the substrate. These coatings were exposed to aquatic media to evaluate their resistance to corrosion and biofouling. While the UV-grafted cross-linked PDMS coating effectively inhibits aluminum corrosion in aquatic environments and allows organisms to grow on the surface, the LISS coating demonstrates improved corrosion resistance but inhibits biofilm adhesion. The synergy between facile and low-cost fabrication, rapid binding kinetics, eco-friendliness, and nontoxicity of the applied materials to aquatic life combined with excellent wetting-repellent characteristics make this technology applicable for implementation in aquatic environments.

Versatile Dynamic Bioactive Lubricant-Infused Surface for Effective Isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells.

The rarity of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and the complexity of blood components present major challenges for the efficient isolation of CTCs in blood. The coexisting matters could interfere with the detection of CTCs by adhering to the binding sites on the material surface, leading to the reduced accuracy of biomarker capture in blood. Herein, we developed dynamic bioactive lubricant-infused slippery surfaces by grafting the 1H,1H,2H,2H-heptadecafluorodecyl acrylate polymer and 3-acrylamidophenylboronic acid polymer brushes on quartz plates by UV light-initiated and then grafted cancer cell-binding peptides via reversible catechol-boronate chemistry between phenylboronic acid groups and 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine groups of peptides for high-efficient capture of CTCs and nondestructive release of the desired cells in sugar response. Patterned dynamic bioactive lubricant-infused surfaces (PDBLISs) further exhibited the improved capture efficiency of CTCs and more effective antifouling properties for nonspecific cells and blood components. Moreover, the PDBLIS can efficiently capture rare cancer cells from the mimic of cancer patient's blood samples. We anticipate that the strategy we proposed would be used in further clinical diagnosis of complicated biofluids related to a variety of tumors and exhibit good prospects and potential in future liquid biopsies.

Carnivorous plants inspired shape-morphing slippery surfaces

Carnivorous plants, for instance,<italic>Dionaea muscipula</italic>and<italic>Nepenthes</italic>pitcher plant, inspired the innovation of advanced stimuli-responsive actuators and lubricant-infused slippery surfaces, respectively. However, hybrid bionic devices that combine the active and passive prey trapping capabilities of the two kinds of carnivorous plants remain a challenge. Herein, we report a moisture responsive shape-morphing slippery surface that enables both moisture responsive shape-morphing and oil-lubricated water repellency for simultaneous active- and passive-droplet manipulation. The moisture deformable slippery surface is prepared by creating biomimetic microstructures on graphene oxide (GO) membrane<italic>via</italic>femtosecond laser direct writing and subsequent lubricating with a thin layer of oil on the laser structured reduced GO (LRGO) surface. The integration of a lubricant-infused slippery surface with an LRGO/GO bilayer actuator endows the actuator with droplet sliding ability and promotes the moisture deformation performance due to oil-enhanced water repellency of the inert layer (LRGO). Based on the shape-morphing slippery surface, we prepared a series of proof-of-concept actuators, including a moisture-response<italic>Dionaea muscipula</italic>actuator, a smart frog tongue, and a smart flower, demonstrating their versatility for active/passive trapping, droplet manipulation, and sensing.

Electron transfer dominated triboelectrification at the hydrophobic/slippery substrate—water interfaces

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on triboelectrification has attracted wide attention due to its effective utilization of green energy sources such as marine energy. However, researches about liquid-liquid triboelectrification are still scanty as solid—liquid triboelectrification has been widely studied. Herein, this work focuses on the hydrophobic/slippery substrate—water interfacial triboelectrification based on the solid friction materials of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanoparticles. The hydrophobic/slippery substrate—water interfacial triboelectrification are studied by assembling PTFE coated Al sheets and perfluoropolyether (PFPE) infused PTFE coated Al sheets (formed the slippery lubricant-infused surfaces (SLIPSs)) as the friction electrode, and water as liquid friction materials, respectively. The results show that the hydrophobic TENG output performances improved as the PTFE nanoparticles cumulating, and the SLIPSs TENG output performances increased with the thinner PFPE thickness. Both the triboelectrification behavior of hydrophobic/SLIPSs TENG assembled in this work are dominated by the electron transfer. Thanks to the introduction of SLIPSs, the SLIPSs TENG exhibits superior stability and durability than the hydrophobic TENG. The investigation of hydrophobic/slippery substrate—water interfacial triboelectrification contributes to optimize the TENG performances, and expands the application in harsh environments including low temperature and high humidity on the ocean.

On-Demand Maneuvering of Diverse Prodrug Liquids on a Light-Responsive Candle-Soot-Hybridized Lubricant-Infused Slippery Surface for Highly Effective Toxicity Screening.

At present, microscale high-throughput screening (HTS) for drug toxicity has drawn increased attention. Reported methods are often constrained by the inability to execute rapid fusion over diverse droplets or the inflexibility of relying on rigid customized templates. Herein, a light-responsive candle-soot-hybridized lubricant-infused slippery surface (CS-LISS) was reported by one-step femtosecond laser cross-scanning to realize highly effective and flexible drug HTS. Due to its low-hysteresis merits, the CS-LISS can readily steer diverse droplets toward arbitrary directions at a velocity over 1.0 mm/s with the help of tracing lateral near-infrared irradiation; additionally, it has the capability of self-cleaning and self-deicing. Significantly, by integrating the CS-LISS with a GFP HeLa cell chip, high-efficiency drug toxicity screening can be successfully achieved with the aid of fluorescence imaging. This work provides insights into the design of microscale high-throughput drug screening.

Temperature-dependent dynamic fouling on superhydrophobic and slippery nonwetting copper surfaces

• Presents, for the first time, temperature-dependent dynamic fouling on nonwetting surfaces. • Elucidates, for the first time, effects of texturing method and surface type on fouling behavior. • Nonwetting surfaces show up to 75% less scaling compared to regular surfaces. • Electrodeposited surfaces offer better scaling resistance compared to etched surfaces. • Presents Hill-Langmuir model, for the first time, to describe the time evolution of scaling. Bioinspired, superhydrophobic and slippery liquid infused surfaces that offer nonwetting characteristics have been explored in recent years for fouling mitigation. However, most of the studies are in the context of biofouling or under static immersion at ambient temperature conditions that are not reflective of the dynamic flow environment in practice. This article presents, for the first time, a systematic study of dynamic fouling of superhydrophobic (SHS) and slippery lubricant-infused surfaces (LIS) over a range of flow and temperature conditions. Copper metallic surfaces were textured via electrodeposition or etching and further functionalized to achieve SHS and, additionally, infiltrated with a lubricant to fabricate LIS. The nonwetting surfaces were studied for their fouling behavior in a rotating Couette flow of a supersaturated calcium sulfate solution at different rotational speed and temperature. Fouling mineral mass accumulation on the different surfaces was measured as a function of time over a period of days using inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy and the fouled surfaces were investigated using scanning electron microscopy. Both SHS and LIS showed superior anti-scaling performance at all ranges of variables. An analytical Hill-Langmuir model is presented, for the first time, to describe the time evolution of scaling within 20% accuracy over the range of parameters studied. The study is the first to juxtapose two surface texturing methods, electrodeposition and etching, and two nonwetting surface types, SHS and LIS, subject to a common suite of experiments to elucidate fundamental understanding of mineral fouling on nonwetting surfaces.

Nepenthes pitcher-inspired lubricant-infused slippery surface with superior anti-corrosion durability, hot water repellency and scratch resistance

Nepenthes pitcher-inspired slippery surface provides an alternative strategy to overcome the shortcomings of the current superhydrophobic surfaces such as thermal–mechanical stability and functional durability. Herein, we fabricate a lubricant-infused slippery surface (LISS) through micro-nano structure building, low surface energy molecular grafting and perfluoropolyethers (PFPE) lubricant oil infusion. The surface morphologies, chemical compositions, wettability, dynamic liquids movement, self-cleaning, anti-corrosion behavior, and thermal–mechanical stability were investigated and analyzed. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results reveal that the fabricated LISS exhibits enhanced Rct and |Z|0.01Hz values with 2 orders of magnitude higher even after 30 days immersion, demonstrating outstanding long-lasting anti-corrosion properties. Besides, the LISS also exhibits superior capacities of hot water repellency (∼90 °C water droplets) and scratching resistance. We believe these results have significant implications for understanding the design and multi-functional applications of biomimetic liquid-infused slippery materials.

Bioinspired ultra-low fouling coatings on medical devices to prevent device-associated infections and thrombosis

Addressing thrombosis and biofouling of indwelling medical devices within healthcare institutions is an ongoing problem. In this work, two types of ultra-low fouling surfaces (i.e., superhydrophobic and lubricant-infused slippery surfaces) were fabricated to enhance the biocompatibility of commercial medical grade silicone rubber (SR) tubes that are widely used in clinical care. The superhydrophobic (SH) coatings on the tubing substrates were successfully created by dip-coating in superhydrophobic paints consisting of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), perfluorosilane-coated hydrophobic zinc oxide (ZnO) and copper (Cu) nanoparticles (NPs) in tetrahydrofuran (THF). The SH surfaces were converted to lubricant-infused slippery (LIS) surfaces through the infusion of silicone oil. The anti-biofouling properties of the coatings were investigated by adsorption of platelets, whole blood coagulation, and biofilm formation in vitro. The results revealed that the LIS tubes possess superior resistance to clot formation and platelet adhesion than uncoated and SH tubes. In addition, bacterial adhesion was investigated over 7 days in a drip-flow bioreactor, where the SH-ZnO-Cu tube and its slippery counterpart significantly reduced bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation of Escherichia coli relative to control tubes (>5 log10 and >3 log10 reduction, respectively). The coatings also demonstrated good compatibility with fibroblast cells. Therefore, the proposed coatings may find potential applications in high-efficiency on-demand prevention of biofilm and thrombosis formation on medical devices to improve their biocompatibility and reduce the risk of complications from medical devices.

Lubricant self-replenishing slippery surface with prolonged service life for fog harvesting

Slippery lubricant-infused surfaces exhibit excellent fog-harvesting capacities compared with superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces. However, lubricant depletion is typically unavoidable under dynamic conditions, and reinfused oil is generally needed to recover the fog-harvesting capacity. Herein, an effective strategy for delaying the depletion of lubricant to prolong the service life of fog harvesting is proposed. An ultrathin transparent lubricant self-replenishing slippery surface was fabricated via facile one-step solvent evaporation polymerization. The gel film of the lubricant self-replenishing slippery surface, which was embedded with oil microdroplets, was attached to glass slides via the phase separation and evaporation of tetrahydrofuran. The gel film GFs-150 (with oil content 150 wt% of aminopropyl-terminated polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS-NH2)) exhibited superior slippery and fog-harvesting performance to other gel films. Furthermore, the slippery surfaces with the trait of oil secretion triggered by mechanical stress exhibited better fog-harvesting capabilities and longer service life than surfaces without the function of lubricant self-replenishment. The lubricant self-replenishing, ultrathin, and transparent slippery surfaces reported herein have considerable potential for applications involving narrow spaces, visualization, long service life, etc.

Underwater Gas Manipulation: Designing Flexible but Tough Slippery Track for Underwater Gas Manipulation (Small 8/2021)

Lubricant-infused slippery surface shows promising applications in regulating both liquid and gas interactions. In article number 2007803, Cunming Yu, Moyuan Cao, and co-workers design a suspension bridge-inspired slippery track possessing tough yet flexible feature. Taking advantages of the improved structure, this sliced track can achieve a series of underwater gas manipulating processes including switchable bubble control, in situ gas mining, etc.

Designing Flexible but Tough Slippery Track for Underwater Gas Manipulation.

Lubricant-infused slippery surface exhibits a series of superior properties such as pressure tolerance, self-healing, oil-repellence, etc. Especially when being applied in an aqueous environment, the reliable bubble manipulating ability of slippery surface offers great opportunities to develop advanced systems in the field of gas transport, water splitting, etc. To improve the strength and the functionality of slippery surfaces, a sliced lubricant-infused slippery (SLIS) track is presented here, possessing both flexibility and toughness for underwater bubble manipulation. The rigid slippery slices with hydrophobic porous structure are linked by the liquid bridge of silicone oil, resulting in a continuous lubricant layer for bubble transfer. Taking advantage of this unique assembled structure, the in situ bubble controlling process, that is, pinning and moving, is achieved via the stretching/releasing of an elastic SLIS track. Besides, on the basis of the integrated design, a hypothesis of underwater gas mining is proved in the all-in-one process including the micro-bubble generation, bubble collection, and gas transport. The current design paves an avenue to reinforce the structure of slippery surfaces, and should promote the function of underwater bubble manipulation toward real-world applications.

Reed leaf-inspired anisotropic slippery lubricant-infused surface for water collection and bubble transportation

Anisotropic slippery lubricant-infused surfaces with favorable sliding behaviors are highly desirable for water collection and directional bubble transportation. Inspired by natural reed leaves with anisotropic wettability along two directions of groove geometry, a soft lithographic approach of replica molding was implemented to successfully replicate the surface microstructures of reed leaves using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Subsequently, various lubricants were infused to fabricate anisotropic hydrophobic or hydrophilic slippery surfaces. The as-prepared anisotropic hydrophilic lubricant-infused surface (A-HH-LIS) exhibited remarkable droplet nucleation and removal during water collection. The results demonstrated that the surfaces maintained stable water collection rate even under high shear force rate up to 7000 rpm and exhibited favorable liquid repellency at lower or higher temperature. Furthermore, the directional transportations of water (in air) and air bubbles (underwater) on anisotropic hydrophobic lubricant-infused surface (A-HB-LIS) were achieved with outstanding performance. Moreover, the effects of tilted angle β (the angle between sample and plumb line) and rotational angle α (the angle between groove direction and horizontal line) on sliding behavior were explored. The reported anisotropic slippery lubricant-infused surfaces have great potential in water condensation, bubble transportation and marine anti-fouling.

Lubricant-infused titania surfaces with high underwater transparency for antifouling applications: A combined experimental and molecular dynamics study

Marine optical instruments are usually blinded by biofouling. Biomimetic slippery lubricant-infused surfaces have been used for antifouling applications. Herein, lubricant-infused titania surfaces on glass substrates were fabricated, involving the formation of nanostructured surfaces via a sol–gel process of alkoxide, followed by fluorination treatment and then lubricant infusion. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations directly suggested the adsorption behavior of fluorinate molecules on titania surfaces and the interaction between the fluorinated surface and lubricant molecules. The MD simulation results also illustrated the different interactions between as-prepared surfaces and water molecules, indicating the formation of stable lubricant-infused surfaces. The lubricant-infused surfaces showed a high transparency up to 87% throughout the visible-light region, and exhibited excellent antifouling performance by declining adhesion by 94% Phaeodactylum tricornutum. The results would show great potential of lubricant-infused surfaces for antifouling applications of marine optical instruments with high transparency.

Highly transparent, hot water and scratch resistant, lubricant-infused slippery surfaces developed from a mechanically-weak superhydrophobic coating

Superhydrophobic surfaces are usually easy to damage due to their micro/nanoporous structures. As a solution, such a porous surface can be filled with lubricant forming an alternative water-repellent surface, namely, lubricant-infused slippery surface (LISS), which is supposed to be mechanically stronger owing to its dense texture. However, to what degree the mechanical reinforcement could achieve remains an issue without deep understanding. In this study, an extremely weak nanostructured superhydrophobic SiO2 coating is demonstrated capable of being converted into a robust, durable, and antireflective slippery surface with a simple lubrication process. Silicone oils of different viscosities are infused into the SiO2 coatings and the 20 and 50 cSt oils are found to generate superior droplet-shedding properties. These slippery coatings exhibit robust repellency against water jet impacts and hot-water splashes, withstand cotton and sandpaper abrasions, retain their slippery property when subjected to consecutive scratches, long-term immersion, high-speed spinning, water shear friction, and different pH liquids. These performances reflect the powerful role played by the infused oil in enhancing the cohesion of coating and the interactions between coating and substrate, and illustrate the available degree to which the mechanical reinforcement could achieve. This study provides a deep insight into the interactions between a porous coating and infused lubricant, and also a facile method for producing robust LISSs.

Capillary Balancing: Designing Frost-Resistant Lubricant-Infused Surfaces.

Slippery lubricant-infused surfaces (SLIPS) have shown great promise for anti-frosting and anti-icing. However, small length scales associated with frost dendrites exert immense capillary suction pressure on the lubricant. This pressure depletes the lubricant film and is detrimental to the functionality of SLIPS. To prevent lubricant depletion, we demonstrate that interstitial spacing in SLIPS needs to be kept below those found in frost dendrites. Densely packed nanoparticles create the optimally sized nanointerstitial features in SLIPS (Nano-SLIPS). The capillary pressure stabilizing the lubricant in Nano-SLIPS balances or exceeds the capillary suction pressure by frost dendrites. We term this concept capillary balancing. Three-dimensional spatial analysis via confocal microscopy reveals that lubricants in optimally structured Nano-SLIPS are not affected throughout condensation (0 °C), extreme frosting (−20 °C to −100 °C), and traverse ice-shearing (−10 °C) tests. These surfaces preserve low ice adhesion (10–30 kPa) over 50 icing cycles, demonstrating a design principle for next-generation anti-icing surfaces.

Antiwetting and Antifouling Performances of Different Lubricant-Infused Slippery Surfaces.

The concept of slippery lubricant-infused surfaces has shown promising potential in antifouling for controlling detrimental biofilm growth. In this study, nontoxic silicone oil was either impregnated into porous surface nanostructures, referred to as liquid-infused surfaces (LIS), or diffused into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix, referred to as a swollen PDMS (S-PDMS), making two kinds of slippery surfaces. The slippery lubricant layers have extremely low contact angle hysteresis, and both slippery surfaces showed superior antiwetting performances with droplets bouncing off or rolling transiently after impacting the surfaces. We further demonstrated that water droplets can remove dust from the slippery surfaces, thus showing a "cleaning effect". Moreover, "coffee-ring" effects were inhibited on these slippery surfaces after droplet evaporation, and deposits could be easily removed. The clinically biofilm-forming species P. aeruginosa (as a model system) was used to further evaluate the antifouling potential of the slippery surfaces. The dried biofilm stains could still be easily removed from the slippery surfaces. Additionally, both slippery surfaces prevented around 90% of bacterial biofilm growth after 6 days compared to the unmodified control PDMS surfaces. This investigation also extended across another clinical pathogen, S. epidermidis, and showed similar results. The antiwetting and antifouling analysis in this study will facilitate the development of more efficient slippery platforms for controlling biofouling.