Bioinspired Interfacial Materials with Enhanced Drop Mobility: From Fundamentals to Multifunctional Applications

Abstract

The development of bioinspired interfacial materials with enhanced drop mobility that mimic the innate functionalities of nature will have a significant impact on the energy, environment and global healthcare. Despite extensive progress, state of the art interfacial materials have not reached the level of maturity sufficient for industrial applications in terms of scalability, stability, and reliability. These are complicated by their operating environments and lack of facile approaches to control the local structural texture and chemical composition at multiple length scales. The recent advances in the fundamental understanding are reviewed, as well as practical applications of bioinspired interfacial materials, with an emphasis on the drop bouncing and coalescence-induced jumping behaviors. Perspectives on how to catalyze new discoveries and to foster technological adoption to move this exciting area forward are also suggested.

Keywords: anti-icing; bioinspired materials; condensation; drop mobility; superhydrophobic.