Selective, Spontaneous One-Way Oil-Transport Fabrics and Their Novel Use for Gauging Liquid Surface Tension

Thin porous materials that can spontaneously transport oil fluids just in a single direction have great potential for making energy-saving functional membranes. However, there is little data for the preparation and functionalities of this smart material. Here, we report a novel method to prepare one-way oil-transport fabrics and their application in detecting liquid surface tension. This functional fabric was prepared by a two-step coating process to apply flowerlike ZnO nanorods, fluorinated decyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes, and hydrolyzed fluorinated alkylsilane on a fabric substrate. Upon one-sided UV irradiation, the coated fabric shows a one-way transport feature that allows oil fluid transport automatically from the unirradiated side to the UV-irradiated surface, but it stops fluid transport in the opposite direction. The fabric still maintains high superhydrophobicity after UV treatment. The one-way fluid transport takes place only for the oil fluids with a specific surface tension value...