Robust Flexible Superhydrophobic Film with Skin-Inspired Gradient Design.

Flexible superhydrophobic materials are attractive in separation technology, thermal management, anti-icing, and wearable electronics since their adaptability to curved surfaces and deformation. However, their fragility and high susceptibility to abrasion, caused by the destruction of micro/nano structures, remain significant challenges. A skin-inspired gradient design is proposed to combine flexibility and superhydrophobicity by facilitating the nanoparticle engulfment in polymer through pressure, electrostatic forces, and enhanced capillary forces.

Revolutionizing CO Electrolysis: Fluent Gas Transportation within Hydrophobic Porous CuO.

The success of electrochemical CO reduction at high current densities hinges on precise interfacial transportation and the local concentration of gaseous CO. However, the creation of efficient CO transportation channels remains an unexplored frontier. In this study, we design and synthesize hydrophobic porous CuO spheres with varying pore sizes to unveil the nanoporous channel's impact on gas transfer and triple-phase interfaces.

Bioinspired Gas Manipulation for Regulating Multiphase Interactions in Electrochemistry.

The manipulation of gas in multiphase interactions plays a crucial role in various electrochemical processes. Inspired by nature, researchers have explored bioinspired strategies for regulating these interactions, leading to remarkable advancements in design, mechanism, and applications. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of bioinspired gas manipulation in electrochemistry.

Superaerophilic/Superaerophobic NiFe-LDHs Electrode for Enhancing Overall Water Splitting in Alkaline Media.

Overall water splitting, as a critical approach to producing green hydrogen, is greatly impeded by the mass transfer of gaseous bubbles and dissolved gas molecules. Herein, a bifunctional superaerophilic/superaerophobic (SAL/SAB) NiFe layered-double-hydroxides (LDHs) electrode has been developed, which can drive H and O bubbles out of the reaction system by asymmetric Laplace pressure and accelerate dissolved gases diffusion through reducing their diffusion distance. Consequently, the SAL/SAB NiFe-LDHs electrode exhibits excellent HER activity with an overpotential of -76 mV at -10 mA cm and outstanding oxygen evolution reaction activity with an overpotential of 253 mV at 100 mA cm.

Bioinspired Underwater Superoleophilic Two-Dimensional Surface with Asymmetric Oleophobic Barriers for Unidirectional and Long-Distance Oil Transport.

Unidirectional and long-distance liquid transport is critically important to a range of practical applications, e.g., water harvesting, microfluidics, and chemical reactions.

Superaerophilic/superaerophobic cooperative electrode for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction via enhanced mass transfer.

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), as an effective method to produce green hydrogen, is greatly impeded by inefficient mass transfer, i.e., bubble adhesion on electrode, bubble dispersion in the vicinity of electrode, and poor dissolved H diffusion, which results in blocked electrocatalytic area and large H concentration overpotential.

Bioinspired Metalation of the Metal-Organic Framework MIL-125-NH for Photocatalytic NADH Regeneration and Gas-Liquid-Solid Three-Phase Enzymatic CO Reduction.

Coenzyme NADH regeneration is crucial for sustained photoenzymatic catalysis of CO reduction. However, light-driven NADH regeneration still suffers from the low regeneration efficiency and requires the use of a homogeneous Rh complex. Herein, a Rh complex-based electron transfer unit was chemically attached onto the linker of the MIL-125-NH .

Bioinspired Anisotropic Slippery Cilia for Stiffness-Controllable Bubble Transport.

Bubbles play a crucial role in multidisciplinary industrial applications, ., heat transfer and mass transfer. However, existing methods to manipulate bubbles still face many challenges, such as buoyancy inhibition, hydrostatic pressure, gas dissolving, easy deformability, and so on.

Liquid-Assisted Single-Layer Janus Membrane for Efficient Unidirectional Liquid Penetration.

Unidirectional liquid penetration plays an important role in many fields, such as microfluidic devices, biological medical, liquid printing, and oil/water separation. Although there are some progresses in the liquid unidirectional penetration using a variety of Janus membranes with anisotropic wettability, it still remains a great difficulty for single-layer Janus membranes with straight pore to balance spontaneous liquid penetration in positive direction and superior liquid resistance in the reverse direction. Herein, a liquid-assisted strategy for single-layer Janus membrane is developed, which can efficiently decrease the critical breakthrough pressure from superhydrophobic side to hydrophilic side and show little influence on that in the reverse direction.

Integrated Bundle Electrode with Wettability-Gradient Copper Cones Inducing Continuous Generation, Directional Transport, and Efficient Collection of H Bubbles.

The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), as an efficient process of converting various energies into high-purity hydrogen, has attracted much attention from both scientific research studies and industrial productions. However, its wide applications still confront considerable difficulties, for example, bubble coverage on the electrode and bubble dispersion in the electrolyte, which will disturb current distribution and isolate active sites from reaction ions resulting in a high reaction overpotential and large Ohmic voltage drop. Consequently, timely removing the generated gas bubbles from the electrode as well as avoiding their direct release into the electrolyte can be an effective approach to address these issues.

Bioinspired Two-Dimensional Structure with Asymmetric Wettability Barriers for Unidirectional and Long-Distance Gas Bubble Delivery Underwater.

Gas bubble manipulations in liquid have long been a concern because of their vital roles in various gas-related fields. To deal with the weakness in long-distance gas transportation of previous works, we took inspiration from the ridgelike structure on pitcher's peristome and successfully prepared a two-dimensional superaerophilic surface decorated with asymmetric aerophobic barriers capable of unidirectional and long-distance gas bubble delivery. For the first time, this process was investigated by in situ bubble-releasing experiments recorded by a high-speed camera and finite element modeling, which demonstrates a kinetic process regulated by the anisotropic motion resistance arising from the patterns.

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.

Durable Underwater Superoleophobic Coatings via Dispersed Micro Particle-Induced Hierarchical Structures Inspired by Pomfret Skin.

Underwater superoleophobic materials due to its excellent antioil and self-cleaning performance have attracted tremendous attention. Current underwater superoleophobic surfaces usually use complex methods to construct the surface structure limiting the yield and not suitable for large-scale production. Here, inspired by the superoleophobicity of pomfret skin, we developed a strategy to fabricate superoleophobic coatings with hierarchical micro/nano structures by doping hydrophilic micro silica particle in calcium alginate hydrogel.

A Multi-Bioinspired Dual-Gradient Electrode for Microbubble Manipulation toward Controllable Water Splitting.

Clean energy generated from total water splitting is expected to be an affordable, sustainable, and reliable resource but it remains a challenge to gain pure fuel with a controllable pathway. Here, a simple and economical strategy that enables in situ separation of H /O product by manipulating the generated gas phases with the aid of multi-bioinspired electrodes is proposed. This versatile electrode is based on a Janus asymmetric foam with dual gradients, i.

Bioinspired Slippery Cone for Controllable Manipulation of Gas Bubbles in Low-Surface-Tension Environment.

Manipulating bubbles in surfactant solutions or oil mediums is of vital importance in daily life and industries concerned with cosmetics, food, fermentation, mineral flotation, etc. However, realizing controllable regulation of a bubble's behavior is quite challenging in a low-surface-tension aqueous environment, which is mainly attributed to the strong affinity of liquid molecules to a solid surface to prevent the efficient interaction of gas bubbles with the solid surface. To address these issues, herein, we have taken inspiration from cactus spines and pitcher plants to develop a slippery copper cone (SCC), which can facilely manipulate gas bubble in surfactant solutions (as low as ∼29.

Is Superhydrophobicity Equal to Underwater Superaerophilicity: Regulating the Gas Behavior on Superaerophilic Surface via Hydrophilic Defects.

Superhydrophobic surfaces have long been considered as superaerophilic surfaces while being placed in the aqueous environment. However, versatile gas/solid interacting phenomena were reported by utilizing different superhydrophobic substrates, indicating that these two wetting states cannot be simply equated. Herein, we demonstrate how the hydrophilic defects on the superhydrophobic track manipulate the underwater gas delivery, without deteriorating the water repellency of the surface in air.

Bioinspired Pressure-Tolerant Asymmetric Slippery Surface for Continuous Self-Transport of Gas Bubbles in Aqueous Environment.

Biosurfaces with geometry-gradient structures or special wettabilities demonstrate intriguing performance in manipulating the behaviors of versatile fluids. By mimicking natural species, that is, the cactus spine with a shape-gradient morphology and the Picher plant with a lubricated inner surface, we have successfully prepared an asymmetric slippery surface by following the processes of CO-laser cutting, superhydrophobic modification, and the fluorinert infusion. The asymmetric morphology will cause the deformation of gas bubbles and subsequently engender an asymmetric driven force on them.

Superwettability of Gas Bubbles and Its Application: From Bioinspiration to Advanced Materials.

Gas bubbles in aqueous media are common and inevitable in, for example, agriculture and industrial processes. The behaviors of gas bubbles on solid interfaces, including generation, growth, coalescence, release, transport, and collection, are crucial to gas-bubble-related applications, which are always determined by gas-bubble wettability on solid interfaces. Here, the recent progress regarding the study of interfaces with gas-bubble superwettability in aqueous media, i.

Foolproof Method for Fast and Reversible Switching of Water-Droplet Adhesion by Magnetic Gradients.

Reversible switching of water-droplet adhesion on solid surfaces is of great significance for smart devices, such as microfluidics. In this work, we designed a foolproof method for fast and reversible magnet-controlled switching of water-droplet adhesion surfaces by doping iron powders in soft poly(dimethylsiloxane). The water adhesion is adjusted by magnetic field-induced structure changes, avoiding complex chemical or physical surface design.

Unidirectional Wetting Properties on Multi-Bioinspired Magnetocontrollable Slippery Microcilia.

Here, a smart fluid-controlled surface is designed, via the rational integration of the unique properties of three natural examples, i.e., the unidirectional wetting behaviors of butterfly's wing, liquid-infused "slippery" surface of the pitcher plant, and the motile microcilia of micro-organisms.

Superhydrophobic Cones for Continuous Collection and Directional Transportation of CO Microbubbles in CO Supersaturated Solutions.

Microbubbles are tiny bubbles with diameters below 50 μm. Because of their minute buoyant force, the microbubbles stagnate in aqueous media for a long time, and they sometimes cause serious damage. Most traditional methods chosen for elimination of gas bubbles utilize buoyancy forces including chemical methods and physical methods, and they only have a minor effect on microbubbles.

Facile Fabrication of a Polyethylene Mesh for Oil/Water Separation in a Complex Environment.

Low cost, eco-friendly, and easily scaled-up processes are needed to fabricate efficient oil/water separation materials, especially those useful in harsh environments such as highly acidic, alkaline, and salty environments, to deal with serious oil spills and industrial organic pollutants. Herein, a highly efficient oil/water separation mesh with durable chemical stability was fabricated by simply scratching and pricking a conventional polyethylene (PE) film. Multiscaled morphologies were obtained by this scratching and pricking process and provided the mesh with a special wettability performance termed superhydrophobicity, superoleophilicity, and low water adhesion, while the inert chemical properties of PE delivered chemical etching resistance to the fabricated mesh.

Water-Repellent Properties of Superhydrophobic and Lubricant-Infused "Slippery" Surfaces: A Brief Study on the Functions and Applications.

Bioinspired water-repellent materials offer a wealth of opportunities to solve scientific and technological issues. Lotus-leaf and pitcher plants represent two types of antiwetting surfaces, i.e.

Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic Cooperative Janus System for Enhancement of Fog Collection.

Harvesting micro-droplets from fog is a promising method for solving global freshwater crisis. Different types of fog collectors have been extensively reported during the last decade. The improvement of fog collection can be attributed to the immediate transportation of harvested water, the effective regeneration of the fog gathering surface, etc.