Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) offer significant advantages including high energy density and rapid refueling, making them promising power sources for portable electronic products. However, their practical application, particularly in passive sys...
A novel composite groove array surface was fabricated using femtosecond laser ablation technology to enhance self-replenishment capability. Initially, the driving efficiency of droplets on the composite groove array surface was tested using a high-sp...
Widely used in treating oil mist aerosols generated from metalworking processes, conventional gas–liquid coalescing filters face drawbacks such as increased energy consumption, performance limitations, and shortened service life due to high ste...
A finite-volume method based on the OpenFOAM is used to numerically study the factors affecting the migration of viscoelastic droplets on rigid surfaces with wettability gradients. Parameters investigated include droplet size, relaxation time, solven...
Soft tissue sticking on electrosurgical scalpels in minimally invasive surgery can increase the difficulty of operation and easily lead to medical malpractice. It is significant to develop new methods for anti-sticking of soft tissue on electrosurgic...
For micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC), water flooding on the cathode seriously affects the performance stability. Additionally, the effect of material and wettability of the cathode current collector (CCC) on the drainage capacity is studied...
Oil spills and oily wastewater discharges have posed severe threats to the ecosystem and human health, yet efficient cleanup and recovery remain huge challenges. The absorption of crude oil is especially difficult due to its high viscosity. In this s...
Liquid lithography represents a robust technique for fabricating three-dimensional (3D) microstructures on a two-dimensional template. Silanization of a surface is often a key step in the liquid lithography process and is used to alter the surface en...
Appropriate surface wettability and roughness of biomaterials is an important factor in cell attachment and proliferation. In this study, we investigated the correlation between surface wettability and roughness, and biological response in human adip...
Flow boiling is one of the most effective phase-change heat transfer mechanisms and is strongly dependent on surface properties. The surface wettability is a crucial parameter, which has a considerable effect on the heat transfer performance, particu...
Fog harvesting of the Namib desert beetles has inspired many researchers to design artificial fog harvesting hybrid surfaces, which commonly involve flat hydrophilic patterns on hydrophobic surfaces. However, relatively less interest has been shown i...
The spontaneous directional transportation (SDT) of water and gas has functions such as efficient water collection, enhanced heat transfer, underwater drag reduction, and so on, having great application prospects in aerospace and navigation fields. T...
The wettability of silicone hydrogel (SiHy) contact lens (CLs) is crucial for the pre-lens tear film stability throughout the day. Therefore, sessile drop and captive bubble setups were used to study the advancing and receding water contact angles (C...
Moisture (sweat) management in textile products is crucial to regulate human thermo-physiological comfort. Traditional hydrophilic textiles, such as cotton, can absorb sweat, but they retain it, leading to undesired wet adhesion sensation and even ex...
The pre-lens tear film (PLTF) over (i) delefilcon A silicone hydrogel water gradient (WG; 33–80% from core to surface) contact lenses (CLs) (SHWG-CLs) and (ii) subjects’ own non-WG soft CLs (SCLs) (SO-SCLs) was studied in 30 eyes of 30 su...
The movement of liquid droplets on the energy gradient surface has attracted extensive attention inspired by biological features in nature, such as the periodic spindle-shaped nodes in spider silks and conical-like barbs of cacti, and the structure&n...
Limited lubricant supply (LLS) with tuned dosage is an emerging approach to reduce friction and energy consumption. However, LLS can cause severe starvation when the oil supply is insufficient. Therefore, how to effectively replenish oil to the lubri...
The migration and accumulation of oil in tight sandstone reservoirs are mainly controlled by capillary force. Due to the small pore radius and complex pore structure of tight sandstone reservoirs, the capillary force is very sensitive to wettability,...
The ultra-low friction observed between water and carbon nanotubes has been extensively reported recently. In this study, we delve into the factors influencing the liquid–solid friction, including surface properties such as surface wettability...
Firstly, this paper reviews the fundamental theories of solid surface wettability and contact angle hysteresis. Subsequently, it further introduces four typical wettability-engineered surfaces with low hysteresis (superhydrophobic, superamphiphobic,...
Freshwater resources that humans can use directly account for 2.5 percent. Fog collection from the atmosphere is an eco-friendly and potential solution to the water shortage crisis. This study presents a biomimetic approach to fog collection inspired...
This study proposes a MPL (microporous layer)–GDL (gas diffusion layer) microstructure reconstruction method based on a novel random reconstruction algorithm. Then the Shan–Chen multi-component and multi-phase lattice Boltzmann method (SC...
PET/PA6, hollow, segmented-pie, microfiber nonwovens (PET/PA6 HSMNs) play an important role in a microfiber, synthetic leather base. Most of the current PET/PA6 HSMNs generally lack in hygiene performance. Moreover, there is an urgent need for the as...
The viscous fingering phenomenon often occurs when a low-viscosity fluid displaces a high-viscosity fluid in a homogeneous porous media, which is an undesirable displacement process in many engineering applications. The influence of wetting gradient...
In magnetowetting, the material properties of liquid, surface morphology of solid, and applied external field are three major factors used to determine the wettability of a liquid droplet on a surface. For wetting measurements, an irregular or uneven...
Magnetic polymer colloids comprising of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles and Eudragit E100 were employed to fabricate thin film gradients and were investigated for in-vitro magnetic resonance imaging. Magnetic polymer colloids (MPC) and polyacrylic ac...
The study concerns the evaluation of the physicochemical and thermo-adsorptive surface properties of six commercially available mouthrinses, particularly surface tension, surface activity, partitioning coefficient, critical micellar concentration, Gi...
The development of efficient directional liquid transport systems has become a central focus in numerous research and engineering fields. Natural organisms have evolved intricate structures that facilitate the controlled movement of liquids on planar...
Localized functionalization of polymer surface with an atmospheric-pressure plasma jet was investigated at various treatment conditions. Polystyrene samples were treated with the plasma jet sustained in argon under direct or remote conditions. The tw...
Fabrication of superhydrophobic coatings for magnesium alloys is in high demand for various industrial applications. Such coatings not only extend the service life of metal structures, but also impart additional useful functional properties to the co...
Tissue engineering is vital in treating injuries and restoring damaged tissues, aiming to accelerate regeneration and optimize the complex healing process. In this study, multizonal scaffolds, designed to mimic tissues with bilayer architecture, were...
An optimized “rigid-flexible” structure with multistage gradient modulus was constructed on carbon fiber (CF) surface via chemical grafting using “flexible” polyethyleneimine (PEI) and “rigid” polydopamine (PDA) be...
In this work, we studied the stability of matrices with temperature-dependent solubility and their interactions with water at physiological temperature for their application in cell culture in vitro. Gradient copolymers of 2-isopropyl- with 2-n-propy...
Despite the extensive utilization of polysaccharide hydrogels in regenerative medicine, current fabrication methods fail to produce mechanically stable scaffolds using only hydrogels. The recently developed hybrid extrusion-based bioprinting process...
The performance of oil–water coalescence separation elements currently fails to meet the increasing demands of the oily wastewater treatment industry. To address this challenge, a series of fiber coalescing filters were developed through an und...
Transparent superhydrophobic coatings for photovoltaic (PV) cover glass must combine high optical transmission with durable liquid repellency and resistance to outdoor soiling. Here, we report a bioinspired bifunctional transparent superhydrophobic c...
In this study, a novel, thorn-shaped, containing, hydrophilic, and hydrophobic surface is proposed to have a better condensate drainage characteristic and to delay the required time for frosting. By using a hydrophilic and hydrophobic mixed thorn-sha...
Drop impact on a dry substrate is ubiquitous in nature and industrial processes, including aircraft de-icing, ink-jet printing, microfluidics, and additive manufacturing. While the maximum spreading factor is crucial for controlling the efficiency of...
High-throughput screening (HTS) is an essential process in drug discovery, requiring platforms that ensure reagent economy, high efficiency, and resistance to cross-contamination. Click chemistry is well suited for HTS because of its biocompatibility...
To enhance the mechanical properties of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs), this study devised a novel three-dimensional web-like “rigid–flexible” surface modification strategy. The synergistic incorporation of carbo...
Biomimetic hydrogel lubrication coatings with high wettability and low friction show great promise in tissue engineering, wound dressing, drug delivery, and intelligent sensing. Inspired by the hierarchical structure of natural cartilage, a layered h...
Droplet microarrays are increasingly used for miniaturized, high-throughput biochemical assays, yet their fabrication commonly relies on complex lithographic processes, custom masks, or specialized coatings. Here we present a simple method for genera...
Reactive air brazing of porous SiO2 ceramic (p-SiO2) was achieved using Ag-CuO filler metal. When brazing p-SiO2, two main problems existed. Firstly, the wettability of the Ag filler metal on the surface of p-SiO2 was poor. Secondly, the residual str...
Oil pollution in soil-groundwater systems is difficult to remove, and a large amount of residual oil is trapped in the low permeable layer of the heterogeneous aquifer. Aromatic hydrocarbons in oil have high toxicity and low solubility in water, whic...
Water scarcity constitutes a major global challenge. Biomimetic water collection materials, which mimic the efficient water capture and transport mechanisms, offer a crucial approach to addressing the water crisis. This review summarizes the research...
Fog water collection, as a sustainable approach to alleviating water scarcity, has attracted considerable attention due to its low energy consumption and environmental friendliness. Various organisms in nature have evolved unique biological structure...
At present, the self-supporting paper-based electrode has some problems, such as low mechanical strength and insufficient flexibility, which restrict its application in flexible electronics. In this paper, FWF is used as the skeleton fiber, and the c...
This study presents a bioinspired phase-change transparent flexible heater (PTFH) for programmable droplet manipulation under ultralow voltage. By embedding a self-junctioned copper nanowire network into paraffin-infused, porous PVDF-HFP gel matrices...
Titanium alloys are widely used in biomedical applications, especially in dental implants. In this work, individual TiOxCy thin films and a novel multilayer coating approach were investigated to prevent early implant failure through surface propertie...
Understanding the dynamic displacement of immiscible fluids in porous media is important for carbon dioxide injection and storage, enhanced oil recovery, and non-aqueous phase liquid contamination of groundwater. However, the process is not well unde...
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