Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS), Beijing Engineering Research Center of Nanomaterials for Green Printing Technology, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Beijing 100190, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Nat Commun. 2017 Jan 30;8:14110. doi: 10.1038/ncomms14110.
The evolution of gas-liquid foams has been an attractive topic for more than half a century. However, it remains a challenge to manipulate the evolution of foams, which restricts the development of porous materials with excellent mechanical, thermal, catalytic, electrical or acoustic properties. Here we report a strategy to manipulate the evolution of two-dimensional (2D) liquid foams with a micropatterned surface. We demonstrate that 2D liquid foams can evolve beyond Ostwald ripening (large bubbles always consuming smaller ones). By varying the arrangement of pillars on the surface, we have prepared various patterns of foams in which the size, shape and position of the bubbles can be precisely controlled. Furthermore, these patterned bubbles can serve as a template for the assembly of functional materials, such as nanoparticles and conductive polymers, into desired 2D networks with nanoscale resolution. This methodology provides new insights in controlling curvature-driven evolution and opens a general route for the assembly of functional materials.
气液泡沫的演化已经成为半个多世纪以来备受关注的课题。然而，控制泡沫的演化仍然具有挑战性，这限制了具有优异机械、热、催化、电或声性能的多孔材料的发展。在这里，我们报告了一种用微图案表面来控制二维（2D）液体泡沫演化的策略。我们证明，2D 液体泡沫可以超越奥斯特瓦尔德熟化（大泡总是消耗小泡）。通过改变表面上支柱的排列方式，我们已经制备了各种泡沫图案，其中气泡的大小、形状和位置可以被精确控制。此外，这些图案化的气泡可以作为模板，用于将纳米颗粒和导电聚合物等功能材料组装成具有纳米级分辨率的所需 2D 网络。该方法为控制曲率驱动演化提供了新的见解，并为功能材料的组装开辟了一条通用途径。
