scholarly journals Laser-Etched Stretchable Graphene–Polymer Composite Array for Sensitive Strain and Viscosity Sensors

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuting Jiang ◽  
Yang Wang ◽  
Heting Wu ◽  
Yuanhao Wang ◽  
Renyun Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract The ability to control surface wettability and liquid spreading on textured surfaces is of interest for extensive applications. Soft materials have prominent advantages for producing the smart coatings with multiple functions for strain sensing. Here, we report a simple method to prepare flexible hydrophobic smart coatings using graphene–polymer films. Arrays of individual patterns in the films were created by laser engraving and controlled the contact angle of small drops by pinning the contact lines in a horizontal tensile range of 0–200%. By means of experiments and model, we demonstrate that the ductility of drops is relied on the height-to-spacing ratio of the individual pattern and the intrinsic contact angle. Moreover, the change of drop size was utilized to measure the applied strain and liquid viscosity, enabling a strain sensitivity as high as 1068 μm2/%. The proposed laser-etched stretchable graphene–polymer composite has potential applications in DNA microarrays, biological assays, soft robots, and so on.

Biomimetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Quentin Legrand ◽  
Stephane Benayoun ◽  
Stephane Valette

This investigation of morphology-wetting links was performed using a biomimetic approach. Three natural leaves’ surfaces were studied: two bamboo varieties and Ginkgo Biloba. Multiscale surface topographies were analyzed by SEM observations, FFT, and Gaussian filtering. A PDMS replicating protocol of natural surfaces was proposed in order to study the purely morphological contribution to wetting. High static contact angles, close to 135∘, were measured on PDMS replicated surfaces. Compared to flat PDMS, the increase in static contact angle due to purely morphological contribution was around 20∘. Such an increase in contact angle was obtained despite loss of the nanometric scale during the replication process. Moreover, a significant decrease of the hysteresis contact angle was measured on PDMS replicas. The value of the contact angle hysteresis moved from 40∘ for flat PDMS to less than 10∘ for textured replicated surfaces. The wetting behavior of multiscale textured surfaces was then studied in the frame of the Wenzel and Cassie–Baxter models. Whereas the classical laws made it possible to describe the wetting behavior of the ginkgo biloba replications, a hierarchical model was developed to depict the wetting behavior of both bamboo species.


2010 ◽  
Vol 150-151 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Yong Feng Li ◽  
Chi Jiang ◽  
Duo Jun Lv ◽  
Xiao Ying Dong ◽  
Yi Xing Liu

In order to improve the value-added applications of low-quality wood, a novel Wood-Polymer Composite was fabricated by in-situ synthesis of copolymer from monomers within wood porous structure. The structure was characterized with SEM and FTIR, and its dimensional stability was also tested. The SEM observations showed that copolymer filled up wood pores and contact tightly with wood matrix, indicating strong interactions between them. FTIR analysis indicated that when the monomers copolymerized in situ wood porous structure, they also reacted with wood matrix by reaction of hydroxyl groups and ester groups, indicating chemical bond between the two phases, which is agreement with SEM observations. The volume swelling efficiency and contact angle of such composite were higher than those of wood, respectively, indicating good dimensional stability involving volume swelling efficiency and contact angle. Such composite could be potentially applied in fields of construction, traffic and indoor decoration.


Author(s):  
Yen-Wen Lu ◽  
Rakesh Dhull

A simple method that utilizes Marangoni flow to create droplet deformation and to tilt micro-objects is presented. Contact angle hysteresis is employed to prevent the droplet from rolling away from the position. The device consists of a micromirror placed on the droplet, and can produce a 6.5° tilting angle when actuated at 30 V. It also demonstrates its scanning capability and potential as a micromirror.


Materials ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gregorčič ◽  
Marjetka Conradi ◽  
Luka Hribar ◽  
Matej Hočevar

Controlling the surface wettability represents an important challenge in the field of surface functionalization. Here, the wettability of a stainless-steel surface is modified by 30-ns pulses of a Nd:YAG marking laser (λ = 1064 nm) with peak fluences within the range 3.3–25.1 J cm−2. The short- (40 days), intermediate- (100 days) and long-term (1 year) superhydrophilic-to-(super)hydrophobic transition of the laser-textured surfaces exposed to the atmospheric air is examined by evaluating its wettability in the context of the following parameters: (i) pulse fluence; (ii) scan line separation; (iii) focal position and (iv) wetting period due to contact angle measurements. The results show that using solely a short-term evaluation can lead to wrong conclusions and that the faster development of the hydrophobicity immediately after laser texturing usually leads to lower final contact angle and vice versa, the slower this transition is, the more superhydrophobic the surface is expected to become (possibly even with self-cleaning ability). Depending on laser fluence, the laser-textured surfaces can develop stable or unstable hydrophobicity. Stable hydrophobicity is achieved, if the threshold fluence of 12 J cm−2 is exceeded. We show that by nanosecond-laser texturing a lotus-leaf-like surface with a contact angle above 150° and roll-off angle below 5° can be achieved.


2012 ◽  
Vol 706-709 ◽  
pp. 2874-2879 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Jafari ◽  
Masoud Farzaneh

Superhydrophobic surfaces were prepared using a very simple and low-cost method by spray coating. A high static water contact angle of about 154° was obtained by deposition of stearic acid on an aluminium alloy. However, this coating demonstrated a high contact angle hysteresis (~ 30º). On the other hand, superhydrophobic surfaces with a static contact angle of about 162º and 158º, and a low contact angle hysteresis of about 3º and 5º were respectively obtained by incorporating nanoparticles of SiO2and CaCO3in stearic acid. The excellent resulting hydrophobicity is attributed to the synergistic effects of micro/nanoroughness and low surface energy. A study of the wettability of these surfaces at temperatures ranging from 20 to-10 °C showed that the superhydrophobic surface becomes rather hydrophobic at supercooled temperatures.


Coatings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chongwei Du ◽  
Xiaoyan He ◽  
Feng Tian ◽  
Xiuqin Bai ◽  
Chengqing Yuan

Corrosion seriously limits the long-term application of Q235 carbon steel. Herein, a simple fabrication method was used to fabricate superhydrophobic surfaces on Q235 carbon steel for anticorrosion application. The combination of structure and the grafted low-surface-energy material contributed to the formation of superhydrophobic steel surfaces, which exhibited a water contact angle of 161.6° and a contact angle hysteresis of 0.8°. Meanwhile, the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface showed repellent toward different solutions with pH ranging from 1 to 14, presenting excellent chemical stability. Moreover, the acid corrosive liquid (HCl solution with pH of 1) maintained sphere-like shape on the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface at room temperature, indicating superior corrosion resistance. This work provides a simple method to fabricate superhydrophobic steel surfaces with chemical stability and corrosion resistance.


Author(s):  
Yeeli Kelvii Kwok

Wettability has been explored for 100 years since it is described by Young’s equation in 1805. It is all known that hydrophilicity means contact angle (θ), θ < 90°; hydrophobicity means contact angle (θ), θ > 90°. The utilization of both hydrophilic surfaces and hydrophobic surfaces has also been achieved in both academic and practical perspectives. In order to understand the wettability of a droplet distributed on the textured surfaces, the relevant models are reviewed along with understanding the formation of contact angle and how it is affected by the roughness of the textured surface aiming to obtain the required surface without considering whether the original material is hydrophilic or hydrophobic.


2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ten It Wong ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
Fuke Wang ◽  
Sau Leng Sin ◽  
Cheng Gen Quan ◽  
...  

In contact angle measurements, direct identification of the contact angles from images taken from a goniometer suffers from errors caused by optical scatterings. Contact angles can be more accurately identified by the height and width of the droplet. Spherical dome is a simple model used to correlate the contact angles to the droplet shape; however, it features intrinsic errors caused by gravity-induced shape deformation. This paper demonstrates a simple method of obtaining an empirical formula, determined from experiments, to correct the gravity-induced error in the spherical dome model for contact angle calculations. A series of contact angles, heights, and surface contact widths are simultaneously collected for a large amount of samples, and the contact angles are also calculated using the spherical dome model. The experimental data are compared with those obtained from the spherical dome model to acquire an empirical formula for contact angles. Compared with the spherical dome model, the empirical formula can reduce the average errors of the contact angle from –16.3 % to 0.18 %. Furthermore, the same method can be used to correct the gravity errors in the spherical dome for the volume (calculated by height and width), height (calculated by contact angle and volume), and width (calculated by contact angle and volume), and the spherical dome errors can be reduced from –20.9 %, 24.6 %, and –4.8 % to 2 %, –0.13 %, and –0.6 %, respectively. Our method is generic and applicable for all kinds of solvent and substrates, and the derived empirical formulae can be directly used for water droplets on any substrate.


NANO ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 06 (03) ◽  
pp. 265-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
QUNBING ZHANG ◽  
SHIHE CAO ◽  
JUN WANG

ZnO films with well-aligned hierarchical structures have been successfully synthesized at moderate temperatures using a simple catalyst-free hydrothermal process. The synthesized ZnO films are found to be single-phase, with a hexagonal wurtzite-type structure. Scanning electron microscopy images show that the well-aligned hierarchical structures are assembled with interlaced parallel sheets grown on the (400) silica surface. The water contact angle measurement indicates that the water on the films has a contact angle of about 156.3°. This clearly demonstrates that the ZnO films synthesized by this simple method have superhydrophobic properties and may be important for applications in self-cleaning surfaces, biology, and so on.


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