This invention generally relates to liquid-repellent solid surfaces and fabrication methods.
Omniphobic surfaces, with apparent contact angles larger than 90° for both water and low-surface-tension liquids, have tremendous potential applications, such as self-cleaning, chemical shielding, non-fouling, water-oil separation, etc. To obtain omniphobicity, i.e., the ability to repel water (hydrophobic) and oil (oleophobic), an overhang or re-entrant structure is essential. The re-entrant structure prevents the complete wetting of liquids (the Wenzel state), but maintains a composite solid-liquid-vapor interface (the Cassie state). The re-entrant topographic features can be either well-controlled or random. The former type includes micro-hoodoo, inverse-trapezoidal, microdisk, micro-pillar, and serif-T structures, while the latter includes colloidal particle assemblies and deposition of electrospun fiber. Compared to a random structure, a well-controlled topology can be systematically designed and optimized to achieve better omniphobicity. Surface topology also significantly influences the mechanical durability of the surface. The discrete surface structures, such as the pillar-like overhang structures, have very poor mechanical stability because a predetermined breaking point inevitably arises with the overhang part of the grooved side wall. In contrast, the self-supporting or continuous structures, for example, colloidal particle assemblies and fabrics, exhibit improved mechanical durability. To increase the longevity of surface repellency for pragmatic usage, a well-controlled omniphobic surface with robust mechanical stability is preferred.
Previous fabrication techniques have achieved considerable advances, but are still in great need of improvement to produce well-defined surfaces for long-term usage. Basically, the fabrication techniques are categorized into top-down and bottom-up methods. Top-down processes, such as lithography, enable the fabrication of well-defined surface morphology, but the surface mechanical stability is poor. In contrast, bottom-up approaches (including electrodeposition, electrospinning, spin-coating, spray coating, sol-gel synthesis and template-assisted synthesis) can produce self-supporting surfaces with better mechanical durability, but the surface structures are usually random. Very few methods are able to produce a mechanically-stable surface with well-defined structures.
The present invention relates to a novel design of a porous surface or membrane which is both water and oil repellant with a re-entrant structure that is responsible for the surface omniphobicity, and a microfluidic emulsion templating method to fabricate the surface with well-controlled surface morphology. This morphology exhibits improved mechanical stability. Besides, the fabrication technique is facile, low-cost, generic and scalable.
In some exemplary embodiments of the present invention a liquid repellent surface comprises a porous membrane that has hexagonal densely-packed microcavities of a pancake-like shape. Each microcavity has a circular narrow opening at the center of its top. The size of the narrow opening and that of the microcavity can be independently varied. The narrow opening is smaller than the microcavity in size, whereby the re-entrant structure is generated on top of the surface. The minimum geometric angle of the microcavity lies at the rim of the narrow opening, with a value close to 0°. The re-entrant structure and the very low geometric angle (≈0°) contribute to the repellency of various liquids, denoted as omniphobicity. Because the microcavities are separated from each other by their vertical side-walls, the omniphobic surface enables reversible Cassie-to-Wenzel transition. In addition, the mechanical stability of the surface is improved because the microstructures of the surface are interconnected in a continuous manner. Moreover, since the surface is free-standing and flexible, the surface can be transferred onto objects with various shapes, while preserving the omniphobicity. Furthermore, the surface can be made optically transparent and chemically stable by choosing appropriate materials.
The present invention relates to a liquid repellent surface comprising: a porous membrane containing hexagonally packed microcavities, said microcavities having a narrow opening at the center of their top, wherein the narrow openings form a re-entrant structure responsible for the liquid repellency.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the microcavity is in a pancake-like shape.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the microcavities of the surface are identical or 50-99% identical or 60-99% identical or 70-99% identical or 80-99% identical or 90-99% identical.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the microcavity is packed.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the microcavities are separated from each other by vertical side-walls.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the thickness of the side-wall is smaller than the radius of the microcavity.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the radius of the microcavity is in the range of 3 microns to 600 microns, or 6 microns to 300 microns, or 9 microns to 200 microns.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the narrow opening is of a circular shape.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the narrow openings are identical or 50-99% identical or 60-99% identical or 70-99% identical or 80-99% identical or 90-99% identical.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the radius r of the narrow opening is in the range of 3 microns to 600 microns, or 6 microns to 300 microns, or 9 microns to 200 microns.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the ratio r/R of the radius r of the narrow opening to the radius R of the microcavity is in the range of 0 to 1.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the radius r of the narrow opening and the radius R of the microcavity are independently varied.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the height h of the surface is larger than the radius R of the microcavity.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the height h of the surface is larger than the radius r of the narrow opening.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the height h of the surface is in the range of 3 microns to 600 microns, or 6 microns to 300 microns, or 9 microns to 200 microns.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the minimum geometric angle of the microcavity is situated at the rim of the narrow opening.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the minimum geometric angle is close to 0°.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the surface enables reversible Cassie-to-Wenzel wetting transition.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the surface is mechanically robust in that it can withstand a sandpaper abrasion test applied for 10 cm in one direction and 10 cm in an orthogonal 90° direction at a constant speed of 0.5 cm/s for 40 cycles at a load below 8.6 kPa without significant damage.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the surface is optically transparent when made of optically transparent material such that for the light wavelength in the visible spectra ranging from 380 to 780 nm, the transparency is reduced by no more than 20% compared to bare glass.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the surface is flexible.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the surface is free-standing.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the surface is chemically stable if chemically stable material is used to form the microcavities.
The present invention further relates to a method of making a liquid repellent surface comprising:
producing a uniform emulsion containing monodisperse micro-droplets and continuous phase fluid by using microfluidic technique, wherein the continuous phase fluid comprises a solvent and solute or dispersible matter that can be solidified;
depositing the emulsion onto a substrate to form an emulsion-deposit; and
solidifying the emulsion-deposit by evaporating the solvent in the continuous phase fluid to form droplet templates.
The solvent is not necessary specifically limited and can comprise volatile solvent. For example, the volatile solvent may be one or more volatile solvents (at least as volatile as water, including water). In one embodiment of the present invention, the volatile solvent can include a member of ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, propanol, dimethylsulfoxide, dimethyl ether, diethyl ether, butane, propane, isobutene, ethyl acetate, acetone, water, or combinations thereof. In another embodiment of the present invention, the volatile solvent can include iso-amyl acetate, denatured alcohol, methanol, propanol, isopropylalcohol, isobutene, pentane, hexane, chlorobutanol, turpentine, cytopentasiloxane, cyclomethicone, methyl ethyl ketone, or combinations thereof. The volatile solvent can include a mixture or combination of any of the volatile solvents set forth in the embodiments above. A preferred volatile solvent is ethanol, water or a combination thereof.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the omniphobic surface or membrane of the present invention comprises or is made of an amphiphilic material or a solute or dispersible matter that can be solidified.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the amphiphilic material or the solute or dispersible matter that can be solidified can be selected from the group consisting of sulfonated hydrocarbons and their salts, poloxamers, polyoxyethylene alkyl ethers, polyoxyethylene sorbitan fatty acid esters, short-chain glyceryl mono-alkylates, polyglycolized glycerides, mono- and di-alkylate esters of polyols, polyoxyethylene 20 sorbitan monooleate, polyoxyethylene 20 sorbitan monolaurate, polyethylene (40 or 60) hydrogenated castor oil, polyoxyethylene (35) castor oil, polyethylene (60) hydrogenated castor oil, alpha tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate, glyceryl PEG 8 caprylate/caprate, PEG 32 glyceryl laurate, polyoxyethylene fatty acid esters, and solidifiable polymer such as polycarbonate, polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and mixtures thereof.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the solidifiable polymer may have a Mw of 1000 or greater, preferably a Mw of 6,000-60,000, more preferably a Mw of 10,000-40,000.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the continuous phase fluid comprises said solute or dispersible matter that can be solidified is in an amount of from 0.2 to 30%, from 0.5 to 20%, or from 1 to 15%, by weight, based on the weight of the continuous phase fluid. Said solute or dispersible matter may comprise a material selected from the group consisting of polymers of dextrose, sugars, starches, acrylates, polyvinyl alcohol, gum arabic, polyacrylamide, hydroxypropyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid), poly(acrylamido-N-propyltrimethylammonium chloride), polylactic acid, polycaprolactone, polyglycolic acid, polylactic-co-glycolic acid, 1,3-propanediol polymer, collagen, gelatin, fibrin, silk-fibroin, elastin mimetic peptide polymer, chitosan, modified chitosan, polyvinylidene fluoride, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyurethane, polycarbonate polyurethane, polyether-based polyurethane, silane-modified polyurethane, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate), polyphosphate, polyamino formic anhydride, polyesteramide, poly(para-dioxanone), polycarbonate, cellulose, chondroitin sulfate, heparin, glucosan, alginic acid, alginate (preferably metal alginate, such as sodium alginate) polyethylene gycol, silicone rubbers, water and combinations thereof. For example the silicone rubbers may be selected from the group consisting of polysiloxanes, such as polyalkylsiloxanes, preferably polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).
In one embodiment of the present invention, the droplets, the monodisperse micro-droplets, the dispersed droplet, or dispersed phase may selected from volatile and non-volatile silicone oils or fluids, vegetable oils and fats, animal fats, fish oils, hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons and mixtures thereof. For example, the vegetable oils and fats, animal fats or fish oils can comprise soybean oil, rapeseed oil, colza oil, canola oil, tall oil, sunflower oil, hempseed oil, olive oil, linseed oil, mustard oil, palm oil, peanut oil, castor oil, coconut oil, lard, tallow, train oil or fats contained in milk. For example, the hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons may be selected from higher alkanes or higher halogenated alkanes. The alkanes may be alkanes having 9 to 35 carbon atoms, or 9 to 25 carbon atoms. The example of the hydrocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons include hexadecane, paraffin oil, perfluorobutylamine, perfluorodecahydronaphthalene, fluorocarbons, fluoroesters, fluoroethers, or combination thereof. The silicone compounds can be either linear or cyclic polydimethylsiloxanes with a viscosity from 0.5 to 100 cST, 10 to 50 cST or 15 to 30 cST. One example of a linear, low molecular weight, volatile polydimethylsiloxane is octamethyltrisiloxane.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the droplets, the monodisperse micro-droplets, the dispersed droplet, or dispersed phase may further include resins such as: “ABIL® S 201” (dimethicone/sodium PG-propyldimethicone thiosulfate copolymer), available from Goldschmidt; “DC Q2-8220” (trimethylsilyl amodimethicone) available from Dow Corning; “DC 949” (amodimethicone, cetrimonium chloride, and Trideceth-12), available from Dow Corning; “DC 749” (cyclomethicone and trimethylsiloxysilicate), available from Dow Corning; “DC2502” (cetyl dimethicone), available from Dow Corning; “BC97/004” and “BC 99/088” (amino functionalized silicone microemulsions), available from Basildon Chemicals; “GE SME253” and “SM2115-D2” and “SM2658” and “SF1708” (amino functionalized silicone microemulsions), available from General Electric; siliconized meadowfoam seed oil, available from Croda; and those silicone conditioning agents described by GAF Corp. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,767 (quaternized amino lactam), by Biosil Technologies in U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,319 (reactive silicone emulsions containing amino acids), and by Dow Corning in U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,595 (polysiloxanes).
In one embodiment of the present invention, the method further includes the step of removing the droplet templates.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the fabrication is conducted in an ambient environment.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the method is applicable to a variety of materials, including polymers, composites, inorganic oxides, metals, and carbon.
In some embodiments of the invention a bottom-up method is used for making a liquid repellent surface. Such a method comprises the steps of: producing a uniform emulsion containing monodisperse micro-droplets by using a microfluidic technique; depositing the emulsion onto a substrate; solidifying the emulsion deposit by evaporating the solvent in the continuous-phase fluid; and removing the droplet templates. The fabrication process of the surface is facile, and can be conducted in a mild environment. In addition, the method is generic, applicable to various materials including polymers, composites, inorganic oxides, metals, and carbon. Because the fabrication method does not need expensive equipment, the cost of the method mainly arises from the cost of materials, which can be minimized by choosing cheap materials. Furthermore, the method can be scaled up to meet the demand of industrial-scale fabrication.
The omniphobic surface or membrane of the present invention is useful in applications such as self-cleaning, chemical shielding, non-fouling, anti-corrosion, anti-icing, drop manipulation and water-oil separation.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent when considered in connection with the following detailed description and appended drawings in which like designations denote like elements in the various views, and wherein:
Wetting at liquid and solid interfaces is governed by surface chemistry and surface roughness. Consider a liquid drop deposited on a smooth surface at equilibrium, it adopts a static contact angle (CA) of θγ (determined by liquid and solid surface chemistry), as shown in
To maintain a low-surface-tension liquid in the Cassie state, overhang or re-entrant structure is necessary.
A schematic of the process for the fabrication of an omniphobic surface with a designed microcavity structure is shown in
The emulsion is then deposited onto a substrate at Step 32 in
The current fabrication method is denoted as a “microfluidic emulsion templating” (MET) method, owing to the use of microfluidic technique in producing emulsions. The MET method is facile, generic, scalable, and low-cost. First, MET involves a 3-step fabrication process: emulsion deposition, solvent evaporation, and template removal. The series of fabrication processes do not require a harsh environment (such as high temperature, ultra-high/low pressure) and are easy to carry out. They may be carried out at ambient temperature and pressure. Secondly, the MET method is applicable to a variety of materials, including polymers, composites, inorganic oxides, metals, and carbon. In principle, any material can be made to have a omniphobic surface with the current microcavity structure as long as the material is soluble (for instance polymers) or dispersible (for example nanoparticles) in a volatile solvent and can be solidified. Thirdly, the MET method is scalable.
The MET method provides high controllability over the surface morphology. The three characteristic lengths of the omniphobic surface are the narrow opening radius r, hexagonal cell size R, and surface height h (
which is in the range of 1−π/2√3 (≈0.09, when r=R) to 1 (when r=0).
With a re-entrant structure, the surface is expected to possess omniphobicity: repelling both water and oils. As denoted before, the minimum geometric angle φ is close to 0° for the fabricated solid surface (
Since the liquid droplet is in the Cassie state, the apparent CA θ* is described with the Cassie-Baxter model:
cos θ*=fs cos θγ−1+fs. (1)
where θγ is the equilibrium contact angle and fs is the solid fraction at the top of the PVA membrane.
According to Eq. (1), the apparent CA θ* decreases with the solid fraction fs for a given liquid of constant θγ. This result is validated in
The Cassie state is a metastable state. Thermodynamically, the Wenzel state has a lower energy level than the Cassie state when θγ<90°. Therefore, the Wenzel state is more stable than the Cassie state, and the Cassie state will transition into the Wenzel state when the pressure is large enough. There can be many origins of the elevated pressure: hydrostatic pressure arising from Laplace pressure, hydrostatic pressure owing to the immersion of a solid surface under a liquid, a droplet impacting onto the solid surface, vibration from the environment, etc. The critical pressure that induces such a wetting state transition is denoted as the breakthrough pressure Pbreak. Consider the omniphobic surface with re-entrant microcavities, two transition scenarios would occur depending on the height h of the surface (
By calculating the critical capillary pressure when the transition occurs, Pbreak is determined theoretically:
here θa is the advancing angle of the liquid on a smooth surface, and γ is the liquid surface tension. Since θa and γ are determined by material chemistry, Pbreak largely depends on the height h of the surface when the materials of surface and liquid are given. Compared with the case of h<hc, that of h>hc makes the breakthrough pressure Pbreak larger, as can be seen from Eqs. (2)-(3). The larger Pbreak indicates a more stable Cassie state of liquids. For the surface fabricated by MET method of the hexagonally packed microcavities according to the present invention, the height h of the surface is determined by the size of the droplet templates. By considering that a spherical droplet of radius R deforms into a hexagonal cell of size R as shown in
To achieve robust omniphobicity, three parameters are quite important: minimum geometric angle φ, solid fraction fs, and breakthrough pressure Pbreak. The first criterion φ≤θγ enables the formation of the liquid droplet in the Cassie state. Secondly, the apparent CA θ*>90° requires that fs exceed a threshold for a given value of θγ. According to Eq. (1), fs≤0.5 is a sufficient condition for θ*>90° with respect to any θγ. Generally, the smaller the fs, the better the omniphobicity. Finally, Pbreak describes the stability of the Cassie state. Energetically, transition from the Cassie state to the Wenzel state has to overcome an energy barrier. From the force balance point of view, an applied force is needed to achieve such a transition. As such, the larger the energy barrier, the larger is the applied force Pbreak that is needed. To have a stable Cassie state, Pbreak must be large enough. The current omniphobic surface with re-entrant microcavity has an intrinsic φ≈0°; the MET method enables the formation of a surface with a solid fraction fs ranging from 1−π/2√{square root over (3)} (≈0.09) to 1; Pbreak is determined by the depinning pressure, which is larger than touching pressure (
Because of the closed hexagonal cell, the omniphobic surface enables a reversible Cassie-to-Wenzel transition. Generally, the transition from Cassie to Wenzel state is irreversible due to the minimization of energy. Exceptions include applying external stimuli such as heating, electrowetting, electrochemical gas generation, etc. In the microcavity surface, the air pocket is sealed inside the closed cavity when, for example, the surface is immersed into a liquid. Initially, the hydrostatic pressure is P0, where the liquid is in the Cassie state, as illustrated in
For many hydrophobic, oleophobic, and omniphobic surfaces, the Cassie state will transition to the Wenzel state during droplet evaporation. This is because the hydrostatic pressure inside the droplet (Pdrop=2γ/Rdrop) increases as the size of the droplet Rdrop decreases during evaporation. However, such a transition is not observed in the microcavity surface of the present invention.
The above statement is confirmed by
The microcavity surface exhibits improved mechanical stability compared to surfaces with discrete structures such as pillars, nails, beads, etc. The improved mechanical stability arises from the continuous structure of interconnected hexagonal cells. To demonstrate the improved mechanical stability, a microcavity surface and a microbead surface are fabricated, as illustrated in
In testing the mechanical stability, the surface is placed face down to the sandpaper, and is forced to move along the sandpaper for a distance of 10 cm at a constant speed of 0.5 cm/s. Then the surface is rotated 90° but is still kept facing down on the sandpaper and is moved for another 10 cm at the same speed. This is one cycle of the abrasion test. During movement, the abrasion between the surface and the sandpaper will destroy the structure if the friction is large enough. To increase the friction, a load is applied to the surface as it moves on the sandpaper. By increasing the load, the applied pressure on the surface increases. In the test, the applied pressure is increased gradually. For every value of the pressure, one cycle test is applied. With the increase in the applied pressure, the surface structure is destroyed gradually.
The difference between the destruction of the two structures is also manifested in the variation of the water CA versus applied pressure, as illustrated in
To further test the lifetime of the microcavity structure, the surface is abraded with the sand paper under a loading pressure of 11.5 kPa.
The microcavity omniphobic surface can be made flexible by choosing soft materials, for example, polymers. The surface is also free-standing, after being peeled from the substrate. Incorporating these two properties, the surface can be transferred onto various materials of various shapes as a coating. This causes the materials upon which it has been coated to have omniphobicity.
Since the omniphobicity arises from the re-entrant surface structure, the omniphobic surface is expected to be chemically stable as long as the microcavity structure is preserved. As such, a microcavity surface is workable in a wide range of pH values by using a chemically-stable material. To cite one example, PVA can be cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (GA) to avoid dissolution in an aqueous solution and to preserve its integrity in a wide range of pH values. To test the chemical stability of the PVA omniphobic surface, the CAs of water droplets with a pH value ranging from 1 to 14 are measured. HCl and NaOH are used to tune the water droplet from acid to alkali, respectively.
The omniphobic surface is transparent due to the absence of any sub-micrometer structures, thus avoiding the scattering of visible light.
In addition to the above examples and embodiments of the present invention,
In addition to the above examples and embodiments of the present invention,
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof; it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
This application is a U.S. National Phase Application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2016/104658, filed Nov. 4, 2016, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The International Application was published on May 11, 2018 as No. WO/2018/082024 A1.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2016/104658 | 11/4/2016 | WO | 00 |