Metal superhydrophobic surfaces with anisotropic wettability and adhesion have become more and more important due to their promising applications. Herein, we report a new fabrication strategy through a combination of ...Metal superhydrophobic surfaces with anisotropic wettability and adhesion have become more and more important due to their promising applications. Herein, we report a new fabrication strategy through a combination of pulsed laser ablation and low-temperature annealing post-processing. An inclined cone structure array is made on stainless steel surfaces, and then 120 °C low-temperature annealing is applied. Such surface displays excellent mechanical durability and anisotropic superhydrophobicity. It is demonstrated experimentally that the contact angle of water droplets on the surface is different along the parallel(167° ±2°) and perpendicular directions(157° ±2°) of the inclined cone structure. The sliding behaviors of water droplets and mechanical durability of the inclined cone structures are studied. These surfaces obtained in a short time with environmentally friendly fabrication can be applied in industries for water harvesting, droplet manipulation, and pipeline transportation.展开更多
Implant-associated infections are generally difficult to cure owing to the bacterial antibiotic resistance which is attributed to the widespread usage of antibiotics.Given the global threat and increasing influence of...Implant-associated infections are generally difficult to cure owing to the bacterial antibiotic resistance which is attributed to the widespread usage of antibiotics.Given the global threat and increasing influence of antibiotic resistance,there is an urgent demand to explore novel antibacterial strategies other than using antibiotics.Recently,using a certain surface topography to provide a more persistent antibacterial solution attracts more and more attention.However,the clinical application of biomimetic nano-pillar array is not satisfactory,mainly because its antibacterial ability against Gram-positive strain is not good enough.Thus,the pillar array should be equipped with other antibacterial agents to fulfill the bacteriostatic and bactericidal requirements of clinical application.Here,we designed a novel model substrate which was a combination of periodic micro/nano-pillar array and TiO2 for basically understanding the topographical bacteriostatic effects of periodic micro/nano-pillar array and the photocatalytic bactericidal activity of TiO2.Such innovation may potentially exert the synergistic effects by integrating the persistent topographical antibacterial activity and the non-invasive X-ray induced photocatalytic antibacterial property of TiO2 to combat against antibiotic-resistant implant-associated infections.First,to separately verify the topographical antibacterial activity of TiO2 periodic micro/nano-pillar array,we systematically investigated its effects on bacterial adhesion,growth,proliferation,and viability in the dark without involving the photocatalysis of TiO2.The pillar array with sub-micron motif size can significantly inhibit the adhesion,growth,and proliferation of Staphylococcus aureus(S.aureus)and Escherichia coli(E.coli).Such antibacterial ability is mainly attributed to a spatial confinement size-effect and limited contact area availability generated by the special topography of pillar array.Moreover,the pillar array is not lethal to S.aureus and E.coli in 24 h.Then,the X-ray induced photocatalytic antibacterial property of TiO2 periodic micro/nano-pillar array in vitro and in vivo will be systematically studied in a future work.This study could shed light on the direction of surface topography design for future medical implants to combat against antibiotic-resistant implant-associated infections without using antibiotics.展开更多
We propose an effective way to achieve an enhanced optical absorption surface of titanium alloy 7(Ti7) fabricated by a femtosecond(fs) laser assisted with airflow pressure. The effect of laser scanning speed and laser...We propose an effective way to achieve an enhanced optical absorption surface of titanium alloy 7(Ti7) fabricated by a femtosecond(fs) laser assisted with airflow pressure. The effect of laser scanning speed and laser power on the surfaces’ morphology and average reflectivity was studied. In order to further reduce the surface’s reflectivity, different airflow pressure was introduced during the fabrication of Ti7 by a fs laser. Furthermore, the average reflectivity of samples fabricated under different laser parameters assisted with airflow was presented. In addition, the high and low temperature tests of all samples were performed to test the stability performance of the hybrid micro/nanostructures in extreme environments. It is demonstrated that the airflow pressure has an important influence on the micro/nanostructures for light trapping, the average reflectivity of which could be as low as 2.31% over a broad band of 250–2300 nm before high and low temperature tests, and the reflection for specific wavelengths can go below 1.5%.展开更多
基金Project(A19C2a0019) supported by the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC) under its RIE2020 Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) IAF PP,Singapore。
文摘Metal superhydrophobic surfaces with anisotropic wettability and adhesion have become more and more important due to their promising applications. Herein, we report a new fabrication strategy through a combination of pulsed laser ablation and low-temperature annealing post-processing. An inclined cone structure array is made on stainless steel surfaces, and then 120 °C low-temperature annealing is applied. Such surface displays excellent mechanical durability and anisotropic superhydrophobicity. It is demonstrated experimentally that the contact angle of water droplets on the surface is different along the parallel(167° ±2°) and perpendicular directions(157° ±2°) of the inclined cone structure. The sliding behaviors of water droplets and mechanical durability of the inclined cone structures are studied. These surfaces obtained in a short time with environmentally friendly fabrication can be applied in industries for water harvesting, droplet manipulation, and pipeline transportation.
基金supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin(General Program,No.18JCYBJC19500)the Independent Innovation Fund of Tianjin University(No.2019XZS-0014)the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong(No.HKUST615408).
文摘Implant-associated infections are generally difficult to cure owing to the bacterial antibiotic resistance which is attributed to the widespread usage of antibiotics.Given the global threat and increasing influence of antibiotic resistance,there is an urgent demand to explore novel antibacterial strategies other than using antibiotics.Recently,using a certain surface topography to provide a more persistent antibacterial solution attracts more and more attention.However,the clinical application of biomimetic nano-pillar array is not satisfactory,mainly because its antibacterial ability against Gram-positive strain is not good enough.Thus,the pillar array should be equipped with other antibacterial agents to fulfill the bacteriostatic and bactericidal requirements of clinical application.Here,we designed a novel model substrate which was a combination of periodic micro/nano-pillar array and TiO2 for basically understanding the topographical bacteriostatic effects of periodic micro/nano-pillar array and the photocatalytic bactericidal activity of TiO2.Such innovation may potentially exert the synergistic effects by integrating the persistent topographical antibacterial activity and the non-invasive X-ray induced photocatalytic antibacterial property of TiO2 to combat against antibiotic-resistant implant-associated infections.First,to separately verify the topographical antibacterial activity of TiO2 periodic micro/nano-pillar array,we systematically investigated its effects on bacterial adhesion,growth,proliferation,and viability in the dark without involving the photocatalysis of TiO2.The pillar array with sub-micron motif size can significantly inhibit the adhesion,growth,and proliferation of Staphylococcus aureus(S.aureus)and Escherichia coli(E.coli).Such antibacterial ability is mainly attributed to a spatial confinement size-effect and limited contact area availability generated by the special topography of pillar array.Moreover,the pillar array is not lethal to S.aureus and E.coli in 24 h.Then,the X-ray induced photocatalytic antibacterial property of TiO2 periodic micro/nano-pillar array in vitro and in vivo will be systematically studied in a future work.This study could shed light on the direction of surface topography design for future medical implants to combat against antibiotic-resistant implant-associated infections without using antibiotics.
基金supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFB1107704)the Key Research and Development Program of Shaanxi Province (Nos. S2019-YFZDCXL-ZDLGY-0253 and S2020-YF-ZDCXL-ZDLGY-0021)the Major Science and Technology Projects in Shaanxi Province (No. S2019-ZDZX-ZNZC-3.1-0001)
文摘We propose an effective way to achieve an enhanced optical absorption surface of titanium alloy 7(Ti7) fabricated by a femtosecond(fs) laser assisted with airflow pressure. The effect of laser scanning speed and laser power on the surfaces’ morphology and average reflectivity was studied. In order to further reduce the surface’s reflectivity, different airflow pressure was introduced during the fabrication of Ti7 by a fs laser. Furthermore, the average reflectivity of samples fabricated under different laser parameters assisted with airflow was presented. In addition, the high and low temperature tests of all samples were performed to test the stability performance of the hybrid micro/nanostructures in extreme environments. It is demonstrated that the airflow pressure has an important influence on the micro/nanostructures for light trapping, the average reflectivity of which could be as low as 2.31% over a broad band of 250–2300 nm before high and low temperature tests, and the reflection for specific wavelengths can go below 1.5%.
