Liquid Crystal-Infused Porous Polymer Surfaces: A "Slippery" Soft Material Platform for the Naked-Eye Detection and Discrimination of Amphiphilic Species.
Liquid Crystal-Infused Porous Polymer Surfaces: A "Slippery" Soft Material Platform for the Naked-Eye Detection and Discrimination of Amphiphilic Species.
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DOI：
10.1021/acsami.1c08170
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发表时间：
2021-07-21
影响因子：
9.5
通讯作者：
Lynn DM
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Agarwal H;Nyffeler KE;Manna U;Blackwell HE;Lynn DM
We report the design and characterization of liquid crystal (LC)-infused porous polymer membranes that can detect and report on the presence of natural and synthetic amphiphiles in aqueous solution. We demonstrate that thermotropic LCs can be infused into nanoporous polymer membranes to yield LC-infused surfaces that exhibit slippery behaviors in contact with a range of aqueous fluids. In contrast to conventional liquid-infused surfaces (SLIPS or LIS) prepared using isotropic oils, aqueous solutions slide over the surfaces of these LC-infused materials at speeds that depend strongly upon the composition of the fluid, including the presence, concentration, or structure of a dissolved surfactant. In general, the sliding times of aqueous droplets on these LC-infused surfaces increase significantly (e.g., from times on the order of seconds to times on the order of minutes) with increasing amphiphile concentration, allowing sliding times to be used to estimate the concentration of the amphiphile. Additional experiments revealed other intrinsic and extrinsic variables or parameters that can be used to further manipulate droplet sliding times and discriminate among amphiphiles of similar structure. Our results are consistent with a physical picture that involves reversible changes in the interfacial orientation of the anisotropic LCs mediated by the interfacial adsorption of amphiphiles. These materials thus permit facile ‘naked-eye’ detection and discrimination of contaminating amphiphiles in aqueous samples using equipment no more sophisticated than a stopwatch. We demonstrate the potential utility of these LC-infused surfaces for the unaided, naked-eye detection and monitoring of amphiphilic bio-toxins in small droplets of fluid extracted directly from cultures of two common bacterial pathogens (P. aeruginosa and S. aureus). The ability to translate molecular interactions at aqueous/LC interfaces into large and readily-observed changes in the sliding times of small aqueous droplets on surfaces could open the door to new applications for anti-fouling, liquid-infused materials in the context of environmental sensing and other fundamental and applied areas.
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影响因子：
5.3
作者：
Kratochvil, Michael J.;Welsh, Michael A.;Manna, Uttam;Ortiz, Benjamin J.;Blackwell, Helen E.;Lynn, David M.
通讯作者：
Lynn, David M.
影响因子：
29.4
作者：
Guo, Tianqi;Che, Pengda;Jiang, Lei
通讯作者：
Jiang, Lei
影响因子：
1.8
作者：
Lafuma, A.;Quere, D.
通讯作者：
Quere, D.
影响因子：
2.3
作者：
Lépine, F;Déziel, E;Villemur, R
通讯作者：
Villemur, R
用于各种表面自清洁的有机凝胶薄膜
影响因子：
29.4
作者：
Liu, Hongliang;Zhang, Pengchao;Jiang, Lei
通讯作者：
Jiang, Lei