Royal Society of Chemistry, Journal of Materials Chemistry A: materials for energy and sustainability, 6(3), p. 2844-2852
DOI: 10.1039/c4ta05862c
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Motivated by the efficient fog harvesting behavior of the Stenocara beetles in Namib Desert, the preparation of biomimetic superhydrophobic surface with hydrophilic micro-sized patterns is highly desired, but direct and facile method (i.e., one-step and thus mask-free) of producing such is still nonexistent up to this point. Herein, we report a bio-inspired method for direct preparation of stable superhydrophilic micropatterns onto superhydrophobic surface based on a facile inkjet printing technology. By directly inkjet printing a mussel-inspired ink of dopamine solution with delicately optimized solution composition, stable Wenzel’s microdroplets of dopamine solution with well-defined micropatterns are obtained onto the superhydrophobic surfaces, and upon the formation of polydopamine via the in-situ polymerization, superhydrophilic micropatterns with well-controlled pattern dimension can be readily achieved on the superhydrophobic surfaces. The fog harvesting capability of these micropatterned superhydrophobic surfaces was then investigated. Compared with the uniformly superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces, the micropatterned superhydrophobic surfaces prepared by the current inkjet printing methods exhibited enhanced water collection efficiency. The method reported here is capable of facile large-scale patterning of superhydrophobic surface with high precision and superior pattern stability, thus represents a key step towards patterning superhydrophobic surfaces for practical applications.