Bioinspired Fluoride-Free Magnetic Microcilia Arrays for Anti-Icing and Multidimensional Droplet Manipulation.

The accumulation of ice on surfaces will bring safety issues to various human activities. Researchers have been actively developing superhydrophobic surfaces (SHS) as good anti-icing materials. However, some limitations, such as high cost, complexity of preparation, and lack of sufficient durability in extreme environments, restrict their practical applications. Inspired by bronchial mucosa cilia structure and the superhydrophobic lotus leaf structure, we generated ordered magnetic microcilia arrays (MMA) surfaces within 1 min by a fast and controllable microhole assisted magnetic-induced microcilia self-growth method. Fluoride-free superhydrophobic MMA (SMMA) was prepared by impregnating MMA into hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) modified SiO2 solution. SMMA exhibits excellent static anti-icing performance, which can significantly delay the freezing of static droplets in supercooled environments. The SMMA surface still maintains excellent dynamic anti-icing performance at -30 °C after 100 times of supercooled droplet impact. Furthermore, SMMA shows anti-icing performance for up to 2 months at low temperatures (-18 °C). Due to the sensitive magnetic response and excellent bending properties of the cilia, the MMA and SMMA surfaces also demonstrate outstanding multifunctional droplet manipulation under a magnetic field. The MMA surface has the ability to vertically capture and release droplets. The SMMA can achieve horizontal transport of droplets, mixing and microchemical detection, antigravity droplet transport in an 8° inclined array, and even complex objects can be easily transported. More importantly, the SMMA surface exhibits outstanding mechanical durability and chemical stability. It provides insights into the preparation of integrated anti-icing and droplet manipulation surfaces by using a simple green and low-cost method.

Manipulation of bubble collapse patterns near the wall of an adherent gas layer.

This paper aims to apply experimental methods to investigate the effect of the thickness of gas layers on the wall on the collapse direction of spark-induced bubbles. In the experiment, two high-speed cameras synchronously record the time evolution of the bubbles and the corresponding parameters such as the normalized collapse position and bubble collapse time. Experiments yielded results for individual bubbles over a range of normalized distances from 0 to 4.0 for different air layer thicknesses. Based on the morphology of the bubbles, the experimental jets were visualized into six different modes, namely, forward jet (FJ), merging jet (MJ), bidirectional jet (BJ), reversing jet (RJ), forward followed by reversing jet (FRJ), and non-directional jet (NDJ). The height of the air layer on the wall is affected by the fluctuation of the bubble volume and shows the opposite trend to the change of the bubble volume. The air film reaches its maximum height when the bubble collapses, which affects the final jet pattern. In addition, as the thickness of the air layer increases, the center of the bubble gradually migrates away from the wall. The different collapse modes and the migration of the bubble centers have positive significance for reducing cavitation erosion in engineering.

A photothermal therapy enhanced mechano-bactericidal hybrid nanostructured surface.

Polymeric materials that have been extensively applied in medical devices, wearable electronics, and food packaging are readily contaminated by bothersome pathogenic bacteria. Bioinspired mechano-bactericidal surfaces can deliver lethal rupture for contacted bacterial cells through mechanical stress. However, the mechano-bactericidal activity based only on polymeric nanostructures is not satisfactory, especially for the Gram-positive strain which is generally more resistant to mechanical lysis. Here, we show that the mechanical bactericidal performance of polymeric nanopillars can be significantly enhanced by the combination of photothermal therapy. We fabricated the nanopillars through the combination of low-cost anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) template-assisted method with an environment-friendly Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assembly technique of tannic acid (TA) and iron ion (Fe3+). The fabricated hybrid nanopillar exhibited remarkable bactericidal performances (more than 99%) toward both Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and stubborn Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria. Notably, this hybrid nanostructured surface displayed excellent biocompatibility for murine L929 fibroblast cells, indicating a selective biocidal activity between bacterial cells and mammalian cells. Thus, the concept and antibacterial system described here present a low-cost, scalable, and highly repeatable strategy for the construction of physical bactericidal nanopillars on polymeric films with high performance and biosafety, but without any risks of causing antibacterial resistance.

Dynamics and hydrodynamic efficiency of diving beetle while swimming.

Diving beetle, an excellent biological prototype for bionic underwater vehicles, can achieve forward swimming, backward swimming, and flexible cornering by swinging its two powerful hind legs. An in-depth study of the propulsion performance of them will contribute to the micro underwater vehicles. In this paper, the kinematic and dynamic parameters, and the hydrodynamic efficiency of the diving beetle are studied by analysis of swimming videos using Motion Capture Technology, combined with CFD simulations. The results show that the hind legs of diving beetle can achieve high propulsion force and low return resistance during one propulsion cycle at both forward and backward swimming modes. The propulsion efficiencies of forward and backward swimming are 0.47 and 0.30, respectively. Although the efficiency of backward swimming is lower, the diving beetle can reach a higher speed in a short time at this mode, which can help it avoid natural enemies. At backward swimming mode, there is a long period of passive swing of hind legs, larger drag exists at higher speed during the recovery stroke, which reduces the propulsion efficiency to a certain extent. Reasonable planning of the swing speed of the hind legs during the power stroke and the recovery stroke can obtain the highest propulsion efficiency of this propulsion method. This work will be useful for the development of a bionic propulsion system of micro underwater vehicle.

Relationship Between Skin Scales and the Main Flow Field Around the Shortfin Mako Shark Isurus oxyrinchus.

The aim of this study was to reveal potential relationship between the main flow field around a shortfin mako shark and the surface morphology of shark skin. Firstly, a numerical simulation using the large eddy simulation (LES) method was conducted to obtain the main flow field around a smooth shark model. Then, the surface morphology characteristics of a shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) at different positions were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), which showed that the morphology, riblet size, and density of scales at different positions on the shark were significantly different. At positions where the surfaces face into the water flow direction (i.e., nose and leading edge of fins), the scales were flat and round, with a lower density, and the pressure or wall shear stress (WSS) was greater. Scales with three longitudinal riblets ending in three tips were found on the middle and trailing edges of the first dorsal fin and caudal fin, where water flow states progress from transitional to turbulent. The ranges of the ratio of riblet depth to spacing (RD/RS) in the anterior zone, middle zone and posterior zone of the shark were 0.05-0.17, 0.08-0.23, and 0.32-0.33, respectively. The riblet angle generally followed the flow direction, but it varied across different areas of the body. The turbulence intensity increased gradually across the first dorsal fin, pectoral fin, caudal fin, and the shark body overall. In summary, it was found that the microstructure riblets on the shark skin surface, generally thought to be drag reduction structures, were only located in transitional and turbulent regions at the middle and trailing edge of the shark body and fin surfaces, and there were almost no microstructural grooves in the laminar flow regions along the leading edge. These findings can provide design guidance for engineering applications of bionic riblet surfaces. Riblets placed in transitional and fully turbulent regions can be used to effectively reduce drag. The riblet direction should be consistent with the direction of flow.

Observation and analysis of diving beetle movements while swimming.

The fast swimming speed, flexible cornering, and high propulsion efficiency of diving beetles are primarily achieved by their two powerful hind legs. Unlike other aquatic organisms, such as turtle, jellyfish, fish and frog et al., the diving beetle could complete retreating motion without turning around, and the turning radius is small for this kind of propulsion mode. However, most bionic vehicles have not contained these advantages, the study about this propulsion method is useful for the design of bionic robots. In this paper, the swimming videos of the diving beetle, including forwarding, turning and retreating, were captured by two synchronized high-speed cameras, and were analyzed via SIMI Motion. The analysis results revealed that the swimming speed initially increased quickly to a maximum at 60% of the power stroke, and then decreased. During the power stroke, the diving beetle stretched its tibias and tarsi, the bristles on both sides of which were shaped like paddles, to maximize the cross-sectional areas against the water to achieve the maximum thrust. During the recovery stroke, the diving beetle rotated its tarsi and folded the bristles to minimize the cross-sectional areas to reduce the drag force. For one turning motion (turn right about 90 degrees), it takes only one motion cycle for the diving beetle to complete it. During the retreating motion, the average acceleration was close to 9.8 m/s2 in the first 25 ms. Finally, based on the diving beetle's hind-leg movement pattern, a kinematic model was constructed, and according to this model and the motion data of the joint angles, the motion trajectories of the hind legs were obtained by using MATLAB. Since the advantages of this propulsion method, it may become a new bionic propulsion method, and the motion data and kinematic model of the hind legs will be helpful in the design of bionic underwater unmanned vehicles.

Nonwet Kingfisher Flying in the Rain: The Tumble of Droplets on Moving Oriented Anisotropic Superhydrophobic Substrates.

Extensive studies of antiwetting have been restricted to stationary substrates, while dewetting mechanisms on moving interfaces are still poorly understood. Due to the hydrophobic and anisotropic surface characteristics of kingfishers, they are able to easily change flight direction even under high-intensity precipitation. The present study aims to mechanistically analyze how the synergy of interfacial movement, anisotropy, and superhydrophobicity affects rapid dehydration. We have designed a droplet-conveyor system to simulate the bouncing of droplets on moving anisotropic superhydrophobic targets and performed simulations via the lattice Boltzmann algorithm. The moving interface can induce a directional tumbling behavior of the droplet and effectively avoid continuous wetting in the same region. We found that droplet tumbling is essentially caused by transformed depinning velocity vectors at the interface downstream. Also, the hang time of a tumbling droplet is positively related to the angle between the motion vector and the texture. The oriented anisotropic motion facilitates the tumbling of droplets and decreases their hang time by up to 23% as compared to that on a stationary inclined superhydrophobic surface. Similar interfacial process dehydration also occurs on a nonwet kingfisher flying in the rain, and we believe that these findings provide valuable new insights for high-efficiency water repellency of surfaces.

Effects of eigen and actual frequencies of soft elastic surfaces on droplet rebound from stationary flexible feather vanes.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of eigenfrequency and the actual frequency of the elastic surface for droplet rebound. The elastic surface used in this study is the stationary flexible feather vanes. A fluid-structure interaction (FSI) numerical model is proposed to predict the phenomenon, and later it is validated by an experiment where droplets impact the stationary flexible feather vanes. The effect of mass and stiffness of the surface is analysed. First, a suitable combination of mass and stiffness of the surface will enhance the drop rebound. Second, a small mass system with a higher eigenfrequency will decrease the minimum contact time. Finally, the actual frequencies of the elastic surface, approximately 75 Hz, can accelerate the drop rebound for all cases.

Robust adhesion of droplets via heterogeneous dynamic petal effects.

HYPOTHESIS: Bionics and dynamic interface wetting intensely appeal to many research communities due to their unique practical implications. The rose petals had a highly robust dynamic water-retaining capacity under heavy precipitation. We predicted that the roses became more "hydrophilic" at higher Weber numbers. EXPERIMENTS: Fresh rose petals were directly impacted by droplets, and facile artificial petal-like substrates and superhydrophobic substrates were used in the comparative analysis. The wetting dynamics of the droplet (e.g., topography, bounce dynamics, contact time, three-phase contact lines, and oscillations) were investigated when interacting with four selected target substrates. FINDINGS: The present work first time investigated the dynamic wetting rule of the sticky superhydrophobic substrates (SSHS). Simulated and experimental investigations confirmed that the unique coupling synergy between the pinning effect and the inhomogeneous micropapillaes resulted in lopsided contact line velocities, which remarkably suppressed the lateral oscillation and rebounding. This may be a new strategy when designing dynamic water-repellent surfaces and open a promising avenue for emerging areas such as super-efficiency energy conversion and harvesting.

Non-wet kingfisher flying in the rain: The water-repellent mechanism of elastic feathers.

HYPOTHESIS: Flying in the rain presents a greater challenge for smaller animals such as kingfishers, compared with aircraft in the same situation. Regardless, kingfishers have developed advanced water repellency as reflected in the hydrophobicity and elasticity of their feathers. Therefore, it is possible to confirm that the elastic superhydrophobic surface can enhance the water repellency of the surface by experimental and theoretical analysis. EXPERIMENTS: A simplified device simulating droplet impact on a kingfisher feather was configured for comparison. Moreover, the dynamic behavior of droplets (with varying Weber numbers-2 ≤ We ≤ 42) impinging on the elastic and rigid substrate was analyzed, such as spreading, retraction, lift-off, the secondary droplet, and contact time with a high-speed camera. FINDINGS: The elastic substrate significantly affected the retraction and lift-off of the droplet-that is, an earlier and more efficient morphological rearrangement of the droplet-reducing the contact time by up to 8.3% (17 < We ≤ 32). The combination of elasticity and hydrophobicity is a new bioinspired strategy that provides an insight into one of the mechanisms by which birds flying in the rain cannot be bedewed while guiding the design of water-repellent surfaces.

Compressive Properties of Open-Cell Al Hybrid Foams at Different Temperatures.

Hybrid Ni/Al foams were fabricated by depositing electroless Ni-P (EN) coatings on open-cell Al foam substrate to obtain enhanced mechanical properties. The microstructure, chemical components and phases of the hybrid foams were observed and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The mechanical properties of the foams were studied by compressive tests at different temperatures. The experiment results show that the coating is mainly composed of Ni and P elements. There was neither defect at the interface nor crack in the coatings, indicating that the EN coatings had fine adhesion to the Al substrate. The compressive strengths and energy absorption capacities of the as-received foam and hybrid foams decrease with the increasing testing temperatures, but the hybrid foams exhibit a lower decrement rate than the as-received foam. This might be attributed to the different failure mechanisms at different testing temperatures, which is conformed by fractography observation.