Zheng Jing, Yang Biao, Wang Hujun, Zhou Liucheng, Zhang Zhihui, Zhou Zhongrong
Tribology Research Institute, Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, People's Republic of China.
Science and Technology on Plasma Dynamics Laboratory, Air Force Engineering University, Xi'an 710038, People's Republic of China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Mar 15;15(10):13740-13752. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c22335. Epub 2023 Mar 1.
Reversible wettability transition has drawn substantial interest because of its importance for widespread applications, but facile realization of such transition on ceramic surfaces, which is promising for achieving on-demand droplet manipulation under harsh conditions, remains rare. Herein, superhydrophobic zirconia ceramic surfaces that can reversibly and repeatedly transit between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity after alternate heating treatments have been fabricated using a femtosecond laser. The underlying mechanisms of the complex wettability transitions on the laser-ablated zirconia surfaces are elucidated. Hydrophilic polished zirconia surfaces immediately become superhydrophilic after laser ablation, which is mainly attributed to the amplification effect of the laser-induced micro/nanostructures and has no obvious relationship with oxygen vacancies. The obtained superhydrophilic surfaces are transformed into superhydrophobic surfaces because of rapid adsorption of airborne organic compounds driven mainly by physical interaction under heating conditions. With the alternate removal and re-adsorption of organic compounds, reversible and repeatable wettability transition between superhydrophobicity and superhydrophilicity happens on the zirconia surfaces. The laser-induced micro/nanostructures also contribute to the wettability transitions. Furthermore, utilizing the superhydrophobic zirconia surfaces with switchable wettability, on-demand transfer of strong acid droplet in air and oil droplet under strong acid solution has been achieved. This work will inspire the environmentally friendly fabrication of switchable superhydrophobic ceramic surfaces and their multifunctional applications under harsh conditions.
可逆润湿性转变因其在广泛应用中的重要性而引起了广泛关注，但在陶瓷表面轻松实现这种转变却很少见，而这种转变有望在恶劣条件下实现按需液滴操控。在此，使用飞秒激光制备了超疏水氧化锆陶瓷表面，该表面在交替热处理后可在超疏水性和超亲水性之间可逆且重复地转变。阐明了激光烧蚀氧化锆表面上复杂润湿性转变的潜在机制。亲水性抛光的氧化锆表面在激光烧蚀后立即变为超亲水性，这主要归因于激光诱导的微/纳米结构的放大效应，与氧空位没有明显关系。由于在加热条件下主要由物理相互作用驱动的空气中有机化合物的快速吸附，所获得的超亲水表面转变为超疏水表面。随着有机化合物的交替去除和重新吸附，氧化锆表面发生了超疏水性和超亲水性之间可逆且可重复的润湿性转变。激光诱导的微/纳米结构也有助于润湿性转变。此外，利用具有可切换润湿性的超疏水氧化锆表面，实现了空气中强酸液滴和强酸溶液下油滴的按需转移。这项工作将激发可切换超疏水陶瓷表面的环保制造及其在恶劣条件下的多功能应用。
