Patterning liquids on inkjet-imprinted surfaces with highly adhesive superhydrophobicity.
The rapidly increasing research interest in microfluidics, microreactors and solution-processable fabrication technologies requires the development of patterning techniques to obtain large-scale functional liquid arrays. To achieve this objective, photolithography, microcontact printing and mask-based UV irradiation have been utilized to physically or chemically pattern surfaces into templates where ordered arrays of liquid materials are constructed. However, these methods require elaborately fabricated templates or expensive vacuum-deposited masks that restrict their practical applications. Herein, we fabricate physically patterned superhydrophobic surfaces with high adhesion by modifying inkjet-imprinted surfaces through nanoparticle deposition, and utilize these surfaces as templates for liquid patterning. Various functional liquid materials are patterned into defined shapes through a simple dipping-withdrawing process. Moreover, functional material patterns such as photonic crystal patterns, arrays of inorganic nanoparticles and crystals are formed after solvent evaporation of the liquid droplets. Furthermore, chemical reactions can be carried out on the patterns. These surfaces demonstrate excellent performance in liquid patterning, which will find numerous applications in optoelectronic devices, lab-on-chip devices, microreactors, and related fields.
School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100190, P. R. China. ylsong@iccas.ac.cn and Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Nanomaterials for Green Printing Technology, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Bin
B
Bao
School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100190, P. R. China. ylsong@iccas.ac.cn.
Jiazhen
J
Sun
Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Nanomaterials for Green Printing Technology, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Meng
M
Gao
Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Nanomaterials for Green Printing Technology, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Xingye
X
Zhang
School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100190, P. R. China. ylsong@iccas.ac.cn.
Lei
L
Jiang
School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, Beijing 100190, P. R. China. ylsong@iccas.ac.cn and Key Laboratory of Green Printing, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Engineering Research Center of Nanomaterials for Green Printing Technology, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Yanlin
Y
Song