3D-Printed Biomimetic Super-Hydrophobic Structure for Microdroplet Manipulation and Oil/Water Separation

Yang Yang, Xiangjia Li, Xuan Zheng, Zeyu Chen, Qifa Zhou, Yong Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

374 Scopus citations

Abstract

Biomimetic functional surfaces are attracting increasing attention for various technological applications, especially the superhydrophobic surfaces inspired by plant leaves. However, the replication of the complex hierarchical microstructures is limited by the traditional fabrication techniques. In this paper, superhydrophobic micro-scale artificial hairs with eggbeater heads inspired by Salvinia molesta leaf was fabricated by the Immersed surface accumulation three dimensional (3D) printing process. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes were added to the photocurable resins to enhance the surface roughness and mechanical strength of the microstructures. The 3D printed eggbeater surface reveals interesting properties in terms of superhydrophobilicity and petal effect. The results show that a hydrophilic material can macroscopically behave as hydrophobic if a surface has proper microstructured features. The controllable adhesive force (from 23 μN to 55 μN) can be easily tuned with different number of eggbeater arms for potential applications such as micro hand for droplet manipulation. Furthermore, a new energy-efficient oil/water separation solution based on our biomimetic structures was demonstrated. The results show that the 3D-printed eggbeater structure could have numerous applications, including water droplet manipulation, 3D cell culture, micro reactor, oil spill clean-up, and oil/water separation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1704912
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume30
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • biomimetic structures
  • droplet manipulation
  • oil/water separation
  • super-hydrophobic structures

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '3D-Printed Biomimetic Super-Hydrophobic Structure for Microdroplet Manipulation and Oil/Water Separation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this