Underwater gas self-transportation along femtosecond laser-written open superhydrophobic surface microchannels(<100μm)for bubble/gas manipulation

Underwater transportation of bubbles and gases has essential applications in manipulating and using gas,but achieving this function at the microscopic level remains a significant challenge.Here,we report a strategy to self-transport gas in water along a laser-induced open superhydrophobic microchannel with a width less than 100μm.The femtosecond laser can directly write superhydrophobic and underwater superaerophilic microgrooves on the polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)surfaces.In water,the single laser-induced microgroove and water medium generate a hollow microchannel.When the microchannel connects two superhydrophobic regions in water,the gas spontaneously travels from the small region to the large area along this hollow microchannel.Gas self-transportation can be extended to laser-drilled microholes through a thin PTFE sheet,which can even achieve anti-buoyancy unidirectional penetration.The gas can overcome the bubble’s buoyance and spontaneously travel downward.The Laplace pressure difference drives the processes of spontaneous gas transportation and unidirectional bubble passage.We believe the property of gas self-transportation in the femtosecond laser-structured open superhydrophobic and underwater superaerophilic microgrooves/microholes has significant potential applications related to manipulating underwater gas.

A nanocomposite consisting of silica-coated magnetite and phenyl-functionalized graphene oxide for extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon from aqueous matrices

In this study,graphene oxide was covalently immobilized on silica-coated magnetite and then modified with 2-phenylethylamine to give a nanocomposite of type Fe3O4@SiO2@GO-PEA that can be applied to the magnetic solid-phase extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons（PAHs） from water samples.The resulting microspheres（Fe3O4@SiO2@GO-PEA） were characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy（FT-IR）,scanning electron microscopy（SEM）,CHNS elemental analysis,and vibrating sample magnetometry（VSM） techniques.The adsorbent possesses the magnetic properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles that allow them easily to be separated by an external magnetic field.They also have the high specific surface area of graphene oxide which improves adsorption capacity.Desorption conditions,extraction time,amount of adsorbent,salt concentration,and pH were investigated and optimized.Following desorption,the PAHs were quantified by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection（GC-FID）.The limits of detection（at an S/N ratio of 3） were achieved from 0.005 to0.1 μg/L with regression coefficients（R2） higher than 0.9954.The relative standard deviations（RSDs） were below 5.8%（intraday） and 6.2%（inter-day）,respectively.The method was successfully applied to the analysis of PAHs in environmental water samples where it showed recoveries in the range between 71.7%and 106.7%（with RSDs of 1.6%to 8.4%,for n = 3）.The results indicated that the Fe3O4@SiO2@GO-PEA microspheres had a great promise to extraction of PAHs from different water samples.