Manufacturing of Super-Repellent Surfaces with High Mechanical Resilience

具有高机械弹性的超排斥表面的制造

• 批准号: 2225964
• 负责人: Tingyi Liu
• 金额: $ 41.55万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2225964&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Manufacturing; Super; Repellent; Surfaces; Mechanical

Surfaces that mimic lotus leaves and have super-repellent properties have numerous applications, including drag reduction, anti-icing, heat transfer, and anti-biofouling. However, most presently-manufacturable surfaces are repellent to an insufficiently-broad range of fluids and lack mechanical durability. To enhance their liquid repellency, nanoscale overhangs in the surface structures can be incorporated. However, overhangs resemble an inverted pyramid shape that is mechanically weak, making these surfaces even more prone to damage from everyday mechanical stresses, such as being touched by human fingers. This project aims to address this fundamental conflict and pave the way for a new type of super-repellent surface that combines universal liquid repellency and mechanical resilience, which have so far been believed to be mutually exclusive due to their contrasting geometric requirements. The research will focus on developing a novel design and manufacturing method to enhance the mechanical robustness of repellent surfaces, making them resilient to various mechanical loads, such as folding and hammering. The outcomes of this research could have significant implications for a wide range of real-world applications that were previously hindered by mechanical fragility. This interdisciplinary project encompasses nanomanufacturing, material science, microfluidics, and interfacial science. It also includes initiatives to engage undergraduate and high school students in collaborative research tasks to foster inclusivity and provide hands-on STEM training, including for groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in the field.Unlike existing solutions that primarily rely on sacrificing a fraction of the top surface structures to delay the loss of repellency, this manufacturing method will use a combination of soft and rigid materials to create hybrid surface structures. This innovation prevents the surface structures from being damaged, because when subjected to mechanical loads, the hybrid surface structures deform into the soft substrate and subsequently recover their original shapes once the load is removed. Consequently, the super repellency on these hybrid surface structures can be maintained. This project aims to study the mechanical durability of hybrid surface structures and analyze the impact of material variations and detailed geometries on their design. It will thus yield fundamental insights and engineering guidelines for manufacturing super-repellent surfaces with high mechanical resilience. By reconciling the inherent conflict between the shape requirements for strong liquid repellency and mechanical robustness, this study is expected to overcome a scientific barrier to the practical utilization of super-repellent surfaces.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

模仿荷叶并具有超防水特性的表面具有多种应用，包括减阻、防冰、传热和防生物污垢。然而，目前大多数可制造的表面所排斥的流体范围不够广泛，并且缺乏机械耐久性。为了增强其拒液性，可以在表面结构中加入纳米级悬垂结构。然而，悬垂部分类似于倒金字塔形状，机械性能较弱，使得这些表面更容易因日常机械应力（例如人手指触摸）而损坏。该项目旨在解决这一根本性冲突，并为新型超防水表面铺平道路，该表面结合了通用防水性和机械弹性，迄今为止，由于其不同的几何要求，这两种表面被认为是相互排斥的。该研究将重点开发一种新颖的设计和制造方法，以增强防水表面的机械鲁棒性，使其能够承受各种机械负载，例如折叠和锤击。这项研究的结果可能对以前因机械脆弱性而受到阻碍的广泛的现实世界应用产生重大影响。这个跨学科项目涵盖纳米制造、材料科学、微流体和界面科学。它还包括让本科生和高中生参与协作研究任务的举措，以促进包容性并提供实践 STEM 培训，包括为传统上在该领域代表性不足的群体提供培训。与主要依靠牺牲一小部分顶部表面结构来延迟排斥性损失的现有解决方案不同，这种制造方法将使用软质和刚性材料的组合来创建混合表面结构。这项创新可以防止表面结构被损坏，因为当受到机械载荷时，混合表面结构会变形到软基材中，并在载荷移除后恢复其原始形状。因此，可以保持这些混合表面结构的超排斥性。该项目旨在研究混合表面结构的机械耐久性，并分析材料变化和详细几何形状对其设计的影响。因此，它将产生用于制造具有高机械弹性的超防水表面的基本见解和工程指南。通过调和强液体排斥性的形状要求和机械鲁棒性之间的内在冲突，这项研究有望克服超排斥性表面实际应用的科学障碍。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。