title: Controlled swapping of nanocomposite surface wettability by multilayer photopolymerization.
abstract: Single-layered photopolymerized nanocomposite films of polystyrene and TiO(2) nanorods change their wetting characteristics from hydrophobic to hydrophilic when deposited on substrates with decreasing hydrophilicity. Interestingly, the addition of a second photopolymerized layer causes a swapping in the wettability, so that the final samples result converted from hydrophobic to hydrophilic or vice versa. The wettability characteristics continue to be swapped as the number of photopolymerized layers increases. In fact, odd-layered samples show the same wetting behavior as single-layered ones, while even-layered samples have the same surface characteristics as double-layered ones. Analytical surface studies demonstrate that all samples, independently of the number of layers, have similar low roughness, and that the wettability swap is due to the different concentration of the nanocomposites constituents on the samples surface. Particularly, the different interactions between the hydrophilic TiO(2) nanorods and the underlying layer lead to different amounts of nanorods exposed on the nanocomposites surface. Moreover, due to the unique property of TiO(2) to reversibly increase its wettability upon UV irradiation and subsequent storage, the wetting characteristics of the multilayered nanocomposites can be tuned in a reversible manner. In this way, a combination of substrate, number of photopolymerized layers, and external UV light stimulus can be used in order to precisely control the surface wettability properties of nanocomposite films, opening the way to a vast number of potential applications in microfluidics, protein assays, and cell growth.
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies @UNILE, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Barsanti, Arnesano, 73100 Lecce, Italy. francesca.villafiorita@unisalento.it
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Villafiorita-Monteleone
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Canale
authors.forename: Gianvito
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Caputo
authors.forename: P Davide
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Cozzoli
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cingolani
authors.forename: Despina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fragouli
authors.forename: Athanassia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Athanassiou
mesh_terms: D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008422:Materials Testing; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D053761:Nanocomposites / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D010777:Photochemistry; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry; D017155:Wettability
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D011137:Polystyrenes; C009495:titanium dioxide; D014025:Titanium