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Janus superhydrophilic/hydrophobic macroporous nickel foam for directional water transport has been demonstrated via a simple floating strategy. Water can transport from hydrophobic to superhydrophilic layer through Janus nickel foam, but cannot transfer from superhydrophilic to hydrophobic layer. This “3D water diode” Janus nickel foam shows extremely high transport rate and outstanding stability. After damaged by abrasion, its directional water transport property retains well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superhydrophobic (SHP) coatings inspired by lotus have great application prospect for our daily life. Regrettably, three formidable challenges, namely, complex fabrication, weak mechanical stability and large-scale fabrication, have already existed for a long time in this research field. Here, a robust micro-nanoscale P25 (Nano TiO 2 )/MgO/epoxy resin (ER) SHP coating has been fabricated via facile one-pot route, which can be applied to arbitrary substrates through multiples methods. P25/MgO/ER SHP coating not only displays excellent mechanical stability but also shows unique repairable ability to recover its superhydrophobicity under various damages by extreme environment such as low temperature, strong acid or alkali and this repairable process can be repeated for many times. P25/MgO/ER SHP coating also is easy to large-scale fabrication with very low cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of fabrication techniques for superhydrophobic coatings is rapidly maturing, yet the problem of low mechanical durability still persists. To address this problem, we introduce a robust micro-nanoscale flowerlike ZnO/epoxy resin superhydrophobic coating possessing a rapid healing ability after ultra-abrasion. The coating was fabricated by a simple immersion method, and it presented a water contact angle above 150° and a sliding angle of less than 2°. A simple abrasion test (2400 linear abrasion times at a pressure of 5 kPa) was conducted to show that the coating could maintain superhydrophobicity, even after undergoing thirty abrasion times. Meanwhile, it could be easily repaired within one minute of the coating losing superhydrophobicity under ultra-abrasion. The abrasion only impacted the thickness of the rough structure (grown on the coating surface by immersion) and had almost no effect on the original thickness of the coating itself. This coating had an extremely long service life and may be useful for a wide range of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of surface science, surface with special wettability, such as reversible or gradient, gradually becomes the focus of the field of science now. Here, via a facile, green organic solvent-free route, we have fabricated superhydrophobic hybrid MWCNTs membrane on mixed cellulose ester filter with great flexibility and tailorability. Importantly, induced by acetic acid vapour and NH 3 vapour without external energy, wettability of it can be reversibly switched between superhydrophobic (low adhesion) to hydrophobic (high adhesion). Furthermore, hybrid MWCNTs membrane can achieve diverse range of gradient wettability. The principle of theory behind phenomenon also has been explained through surface chemical composition and microscopic surface topography by means of Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transformer infrared spectra (FTIR) spectroscopy. This work has solved some critical problems in this field. The limitations and potential application of our work also be summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recycled paper with superhydrophobicity and flame-retardancy has been demonstrated here due to the synergistic action of dopamine-silica trimethylsilyl modified gel powder and stearic acid modified Mg(OH) 2 . This multifunctional recycled paper displays great self-cleaning and anti-fouling ability and can be used for oil-water separation. Surprisingly, the absorbed organic can be reused as fuel via simple combustion method for multiple cycles. This work will not only expand the usable range of paper but also ease the energy and environment crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by mussels we designed a novel green superhydrophobic gel nanocoating with good transparency and stability through a facile copolymerization reaction at room temperature and a subsequent trimethyl silyl modified process, which is applicable to various substrates via a simple spray process without requiring toxic substances. Importantly, this well-designed nanocoating has rapid self-healing superhydrophobicity induced by usual organic solvents to face complicated work conditions, which satisfies the need of daily life and can be applied in industry as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the development of superhydrophobic coatings is rapidly maturing, issues related to their low mechanical durability persist. In this context, the effect of substrate roughness on the service life of superhydrophobic coatings was studied. In this study, superhydrophobic coatings were fabricated on sandpapers of different roughness and reciprocating wear tests were conducted. The wear-resistance number of the superhydrophobic coating, defined as the maximum number of friction cycles after which the superhydrophobic surface started to lose its superhydrophobicity, increased from 50 to 24,000 with an increase in the substrate roughness from 2000 CW to 240 CW (CW is defined as the number of particles arranged in an inch), while it decreased from 24,000 to 17,000 with a further increase in the substrate roughness from 240 CW to 60 CW. Observations of the surface structure and wear analyses indicated that the superhydrophobic material infiltrated the spaces between the sand grains, and the rough peaks could consequently protect the superhydrophobic material during the wear tests. However, this protection weakens when the substrate roughness increases or decreases beyond certain values. Furthermore, these phenomena and results were also verified by applying the superhydrophobic coatings to different types of common substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]