Issue 29, 2023

Stretchable superhydrophobic elastomers with on-demand tunable wettability for droplet manipulation and multi-stage reaction

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surfaces with tunable wettability are critical for miniaturized reaction systems with promising applications in point-of-care diagnostics, liquid droplet micro-reactors, non-loss manipulation, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensing. However, the design and demonstration of stretchable superhydrophobic surfaces with on-demand transitions in wettability remain challenging. In this study, we report a facile approach to fabricating stretchable superhydrophobic surfaces with different microstructures (arc-shaped or V-shaped air pockets) for multi-stage liquid droplet micro-reactors. The surfaces with arc-shaped air pockets are kept in the stable Cassie–Baxter state enabling droplet micro-reactions, whereas the surfaces with V-shaped air pockets that go through pressure-induced Cassie–Baxter to Wenzel transitions facilitate the transport of droplets in between reactions. The low-cost and scalable fabrication method with the effective design strategy provided by this work also paves the way for broad applications that range from liquid droplet micro-reactors and manipulations to chemical detection and analysis in stretchable microfluidic devices.

Graphical abstract: Stretchable superhydrophobic elastomers with on-demand tunable wettability for droplet manipulation and multi-stage reaction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 may 2023
Accepted
25 iyn 2023
First published
26 iyn 2023

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023,11, 10069-10078

Stretchable superhydrophobic elastomers with on-demand tunable wettability for droplet manipulation and multi-stage reaction

X. Ding, Y. Cai, G. Lu, J. Hu, J. Zhao, L. Zheng, Z. Weng, H. Cheng, J. Lin and L. Wu, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023, 11, 10069 DOI: 10.1039/D3TC01666H

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