Nanowire Transfer Enabled by Incomplete Wetting and Mechanical Tearing for Low-Cost Flexible Bactericidal Surfaces withMulti-Scale Superhydrophobicity
2017
In
this work, we report a large-area fabrication of a flexible superhydrophobic
bactericidal surface decorated with copper hydroxide nanowires. This involves a
simple two-step method which involves growth followed by transfer of the
nanowires onto the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface by mechanical peeling.
Additional roughness in PDMS is obtained through incomplete wetting of the
nanoscale gaps which leads to multi-scale superhydrophobicity with contact
angle of 169°
and hysteresis of less than 2°.
The simplicity of the process makes it low-cost and easily scalable. The
process allows fabrication of non-planar 3D surfaces. The surface shows blood
repellence and antimicrobial activity against E. coli with more than 5
log reductions in bacterial colony. The surface also shows hemocompatible
behaviour making it suitable for healthcare applications. The fabricated
surface is found to be extremely robust against stretching, twisting, sand
paper abrasion, solid weight impact, and tape peel test. The surface is found
to withstand human weight multiple times without losing its hydrophobicity
making it suitable for several practical scenarios in healthcare and household
applications.
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