Droplet impacting and bouncing off solid surface plays a vital role in various biological/physiological processes and engineering applications. However, due to a lack of accurate control of force ...transmission, the maneuver of the droplet movement and energy conversion is rather primitive. Here we show that the translational motion of an impacting droplet can be converted to gyration, with a maximum rotational speed exceeding 7300 revolutions per minute, through heterogeneous surface wettability regulation. The gyration behavior is enabled by the synergetic effect of the asymmetric pinning forces originated from surface heterogeneity and the excess surface energy of the spreading droplet after impact. The findings open a promising avenue for delicate control of liquid motion as well as actuating of solids.
Droplet impact on solid surfaces is essential for natural and industrial processes. Particularly, controlling the instability after droplet impact, and avoiding the satellite drops generation, have ...aroused great interest for its significance in inkjet printing, pesticide spraying, and hydroelectric power collection. Herein, we found that breaking the symmetry of the droplet impact dynamics using patterned-wettability surfaces can suppress the Plateau-Rayleigh instability during the droplet rebounding and improve the energy collection efficiency. Systematic experimental investigation, together with mechanical modeling and numerical simulation, revealed that the asymmetric wettability patterns can regulate the internal liquid flow and reduce the vertical velocity gradient inside the droplet, thus suppressing the instability during droplet rebounding and eliminating the satellite drops. Accordingly, the droplet energy utilization was promoted, as demonstrated by the improved hydroelectric power generation efficiency by 36.5%. These findings deepen the understanding of the wettability-induced asymmetrical droplet dynamics during the liquid-solid interactions, and facilitate related applications such as hydroelectric power generation and materials transportation.
Droplet manipulations are fundamental to numerous applications, such as water collection, medical diagnostics, and drug delivery. Structure-based liquid operations have been widely used both in ...nature and in artificial materials. However, current strategies depend mainly on fixed structures to realize unidirectional water movement, while multiple manipulation of droplets is still challenging. Here, we propose a magnetic-actuated robot with adjustable structures to achieve programmable multiple manipulations of droplets. The adjustable structure redistributes the resisting forces from the front and rear ends of the droplets, which determine the droplet behaviors. We can transport, split, release, and rotate the droplets using the robot. This robot is universally applicable for manipulation of various fluids in rough environments. These findings offer an efficient strategy for automated manipulation of droplets.
Perovskite single‐crystalline microplate arrays are directly achieved in large scale by inkjet printing, which present high performance lasing property with quality factors up to 863 and RGB ...(red‐green‐blue) emission. This facile, nonlithographic method makes its promising applications on multi‐integrated coherent light sources and other high‐performance integrated optoelectronic applications.
An effective way to improve the electrical conductivity of printed graphene patterns was demonstrated by realizing the assembly of giant graphene oxide sheets during the printing process. The ...synergetic effect of printing-induced orientation and evaporation-induced interfacial assembly facilitated the formation of laminar-structured patterns. The resulting patterns after chemical reduction showed excellent electrical conductivity in printed graphene electronics. Because of their high conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and advantage in pattern design, printed graphene electrodes were applied in electrical-driven soft actuators, which can realize controllable deformation with low driving voltage. Such achievements will be of great significance for the development of graphene-based flexible and printed electronics.
Structural color attracts considerable scientific interests and industrial explorations in various fields for the eco-friendly, fade-resistant, and dynamic advantages. After the long-period ...evolution, nature has achieved the optimized color structures at various length scales, which has inspired people to learn and replicate them to improve the artificial structure color. In this review, we focus on the design of artificial structural colors based on colloidal particle assembly and summarize the functional bioinspired structure colors. We demonstrate the design principles of biomimetic structural colors via the precise structure engineering and typical bottom-up methods. Some main applications are outlined in the following chapter. Finally, we propose the existing challenges and promising prospects. This review is expected to introduce the recent design strategies about the artificial structure colors and provide the insights for its future development.
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Biomimetics; Nanoparticles; Optical Materials; Photonics
For a drop on a very hot solid surface, a vapor film will form beneath the drop, which has been discovered by Leidenfrost in 1756. The vapor escaping from the Leidenfrost film causes uncontrollable ...flows, and actuates the drop to move around. Recently, although numerous strategies have been used to regulate the Leidenfrost vapor, the understanding of surface chemistry for modulating the phase-change vapor dynamics remains incomplete. Here, we report how to rectify vapor by "cutting" the Leidenfrost film using chemically heterogeneous surfaces. We demonstrate that the segmented film cut by a Z-shaped pattern can spin a drop, since the superhydrophilic region directly contacts the drop and vaporizes the water, while a vapor film is formed on the superhydrophobic surrounding to jet vapor and reduce heat transfer. Furthermore, we reveal the general principle between the pattern symmetry design and the drop dynamics. This finding provides new insights into the Leidenfrost dynamics modulation, and opens a promising avenue for vapor-driven miniature devices.
Novel photovoltaic perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with high‐efficient photovoltaic property are largely in thrall to the uncertain perovskite grain size and inevitable defects. Here, inspired by the ...competitive growth between tree and grass in the forest system, a competitive perovskite grain growth approach via micro‐contact print (MicroCP) method (CD disk as templates) for printing wettability‐patterned substrate is proposed, aiming to achieve large‐grained perovskite and avoid discontinuous perovskite films caused by the low wettability of substrates. A MicroCP process is employed to construct a patterned wettability surface for the perovskite competitive growth mechanism on the electrode surface. This approach modifies the substrates quickly, ensures the uniform coverage of perovskite due to the function of ‐NH2 and Pb2+ bonds, and converts the perovskite films composed of small grains and pinholes into high‐quality perovskite films, free from pinholes and made up of large grains, resulting in efficiencies over 20% for the MicroCP PSCs.
Inspired by the competitive growth in forests, a competitive growth mechanism‐driven perovskite grain growth approach via CD disk printing wettability‐patterned substrates is proposed to achieve large grain size and avoid the discontinuous perovskite films caused by the nonwettability of substrates, resulting in efficiencies over 20% for the micro‐contact print perovskite solar cells.
Asymmetric mechanical transducers have important applications in energy harvesting, signal transmission, and micro-mechanics. To achieve asymmetric transformation of mechanical motion or energy, ...active robotic metamaterials, as well as materials with asymmetric microstructures or internal orientation, are usually employed. However, these strategies usually require continuous energy supplement and laborious fabrication, and limited transformation modes are achieved. Herein, utilizing wettability patterned surfaces for precise control of the droplet contact line and inner flow, we demonstrate a droplet-based mechanical transducer system, and achieve multimodal responses to specific vibrations. By virtue of the synergistic effect of surface tension and solid-liquid adhesion on the liquid dynamics, the droplet on the patterned substrate can exhibit symmetric/asymmetric vibration transformation when the substrate vibrates horizontally. Based on this, we construct arrayed patterns with distinct arrangements on the substrate, and employ the swarm effect of the arrayed droplets to achieve three-dimensional and multimodal actuation of the target plate under a fixed input vibration. Further, we demonstrate the utilization of the mechanical transducers for vibration management, object transport, and laser modulation. These findings provide a simple yet efficient strategy to realize a multimodal mechanical transducer, which shows significant potential for aseismic design, optical molding, as well as micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).
SERS arrays with uniform gold nanoparticle distribution were fabricated by direct-writing with an inkjet printing method. Quantitative analysis based on Raman detection was achieved with a small ...standard statistical deviation of less than 4% for the reproducibility and less than 5% for the long-term stability for 12 weeks.
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