Stimuli-Responsive Surfaces for Tunable and Reversible Control of Wettability

Xu Huang; Yajuan Sun; Siowling Soh

doi:10.1002/adma.201501578

Stimuli-Responsive Surfaces for Tunable and Reversible Control of Wettability

Adv Mater. 2015 Jul 15;27(27):4062-8. doi: 10.1002/adma.201501578. Epub 2015 Jun 3.

Authors

Xu Huang¹, Yajuan Sun¹, Siowling Soh¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.

PMID: 26043083
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201501578

Abstract

Surfaces with controllable wettability can be fabricated by embedding superhydrophobic particles into stimuli-responsive hydrogels. When the hydrogel changes its size due to a specific stimulus, the wettability of the surface can be reversibly tuned from superhydrophobic to superhydrophilic. This general method is used to fabricate "smart" membranes for controlling the permeability of chemicals under the influence of multiple stimuli simultaneously.

Keywords: smart membranes; stimuli-responsive surfaces; superhydrophilic materials; superhydrophobic materials; wettability.