Bioinspired in Situ Growth of Conversion Films with Underwater Superoleophobicity and Excellent Self-Cleaning Performance

Animals using adhesive pads to climb smooth surfaces face the problem of keeping their pads clean and functional. Here, a self-cleaning mechanism is proposed whereby soiled feet would slip on the surface due to a lack of adhesion but shed particles in return. Our study offers an in situ quantification of self-cleaning performance in fibrillar adhesives, using the dock beetle as a model organism. After beetles soiled their pads by stepping into patches of spherical beads, we found that their gait was significantly affected. Specifically, soiled pads slipped 10 times further than clean pads, with more particles deposited for longer slips. Like previous studies, we found that particle size affected cleaning performance. Large (45 μm) beads were removed most effectively, followed by medium (10 μm) and small (1 μm). Consistent with our results from climbing beetles, force measurements on freshly severed legs revealed larger detachment forces of medium particles from adhesive pads compared to a flat surface, possibly due to interlocking between fibres. By contrast, dock leaves showed an overall larger affinity to the beads and thus reduced the need for cleaning. Self-cleaning through slippage provides a mechanism robust to particle size and may inspire solutions for artificial adhesives.

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Superhydrophilic, Underwater Superoleophobic and Self-cleaning Nickel Composite Mesh via Simultaneous Acid Etching and In-situ Growth of Prussian Blue Analogue for Oil-Water Separation

Colloids and Surfaces A Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects ◽

10.1016/j.colsurfa.2021.127140 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 127140

Author(s):

Ruilong Zhang ◽

Zhiping Zhou ◽

Zhongshuai Chang ◽

Xiaohui Dai ◽

Li Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Prussian Blue ◽

Acid Etching ◽

In Situ Growth ◽

Composite Mesh ◽

Water Separation ◽

Prussian Blue Analogue ◽

Oil Water Separation ◽

Oil Water ◽

Self Cleaning

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Epitaxial growth manner and structure of superconducting oxide films

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100173145 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 2-3

Author(s):

Yoshichika Bando ◽

Takahito Terashima ◽

Kenji Iijima ◽

Kazunuki Yamamoto ◽

Kazuto Hirata ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ultrathin Films ◽

Film Surface ◽

High Energy ◽

Epitaxial Films ◽

Layer By Layer ◽

Initial Growth ◽

In Situ Growth ◽

High Quality ◽

Activated Reactive Evaporation

The high quality thin films of high-Tc superconducting oxide are necessary for elucidating the superconducting mechanism and for device application. The recent trend in the preparation of high-Tc films has been toward “in-situ” growth of the superconducting phase at relatively low temperatures. The purpose of “in-situ” growth is to attain surface smoothness suitable for fabricating film devices but also to obtain high quality film. We present the investigation on the initial growth manner of YBCO by in-situ reflective high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) technique and on the structural and superconducting properties of the resulting ultrathin films below 100Å. The epitaxial films have been grown on (100) plane of MgO and SrTiO, heated below 650°C by activated reactive evaporation. The in-situ RHEED observation and the intensity measurement was carried out during deposition of YBCO on the substrate at 650°C. The deposition rate was 0.8Å/s. Fig. 1 shows the RHEED patterns at every stage of deposition of YBCO on MgO(100). All the patterns exhibit the sharp streaks, indicating that the film surface is atomically smooth and the growth manner is layer-by-layer.

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