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Robust Non-Wetting PTFE Surfaces by Femtosecond Laser Machining

Nature shows many examples of surfaces with extraordinary wettability, which can often be associated with particular air-trapping surface patterns. Here, robust non-wetting surfaces have been created by femtosecond laser ablation of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The laser-created surface structure...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Liang, Fang, Lehr, Jorge, Danielczak, Lisa, Leask, Richard, Kietzig, Anne-Marie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4159819/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25110862
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms150813681
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author Liang, Fang
Lehr, Jorge
Danielczak, Lisa
Leask, Richard
Kietzig, Anne-Marie
author_facet Liang, Fang
Lehr, Jorge
Danielczak, Lisa
Leask, Richard
Kietzig, Anne-Marie
author_sort Liang, Fang
collection PubMed
description Nature shows many examples of surfaces with extraordinary wettability, which can often be associated with particular air-trapping surface patterns. Here, robust non-wetting surfaces have been created by femtosecond laser ablation of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The laser-created surface structure resembles a forest of entangled fibers, which support structural superhydrophobicity even when the surface chemistry is changed by gold coating. SEM analysis showed that the degree of entanglement of hairs and the depth of the forest pattern correlates positively with accumulated laser fluence and can thus be influenced by altering various laser process parameters. The resulting fibrous surfaces exhibit a tremendous decrease in wettability compared to smooth PTFE surfaces; droplets impacting the virgin or gold coated PTFE forest do not wet the surface but bounce off. Exploratory bioadhesion experiments showed that the surfaces are truly air-trapping and do not support cell adhesion. Therewith, the created surfaces successfully mimic biological surfaces such as insect wings with robust anti-wetting behavior and potential for antiadhesive applications. In addition, the fabrication can be carried out in one process step, and our results clearly show the insensitivity of the resulting non-wetting behavior to variations in the process parameters, both of which make it a strong candidate for industrial applications.
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spelling pubmed-41598192014-09-18 Robust Non-Wetting PTFE Surfaces by Femtosecond Laser Machining Liang, Fang Lehr, Jorge Danielczak, Lisa Leask, Richard Kietzig, Anne-Marie Int J Mol Sci Article Nature shows many examples of surfaces with extraordinary wettability, which can often be associated with particular air-trapping surface patterns. Here, robust non-wetting surfaces have been created by femtosecond laser ablation of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The laser-created surface structure resembles a forest of entangled fibers, which support structural superhydrophobicity even when the surface chemistry is changed by gold coating. SEM analysis showed that the degree of entanglement of hairs and the depth of the forest pattern correlates positively with accumulated laser fluence and can thus be influenced by altering various laser process parameters. The resulting fibrous surfaces exhibit a tremendous decrease in wettability compared to smooth PTFE surfaces; droplets impacting the virgin or gold coated PTFE forest do not wet the surface but bounce off. Exploratory bioadhesion experiments showed that the surfaces are truly air-trapping and do not support cell adhesion. Therewith, the created surfaces successfully mimic biological surfaces such as insect wings with robust anti-wetting behavior and potential for antiadhesive applications. In addition, the fabrication can be carried out in one process step, and our results clearly show the insensitivity of the resulting non-wetting behavior to variations in the process parameters, both of which make it a strong candidate for industrial applications. MDPI 2014-08-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4159819/ /pubmed/25110862 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms150813681 Text en © 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Liang, Fang
Lehr, Jorge
Danielczak, Lisa
Leask, Richard
Kietzig, Anne-Marie
Robust Non-Wetting PTFE Surfaces by Femtosecond Laser Machining
title Robust Non-Wetting PTFE Surfaces by Femtosecond Laser Machining
title_full Robust Non-Wetting PTFE Surfaces by Femtosecond Laser Machining
title_fullStr Robust Non-Wetting PTFE Surfaces by Femtosecond Laser Machining
title_full_unstemmed Robust Non-Wetting PTFE Surfaces by Femtosecond Laser Machining
title_short Robust Non-Wetting PTFE Surfaces by Femtosecond Laser Machining
title_sort robust non-wetting ptfe surfaces by femtosecond laser machining
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4159819/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25110862
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms150813681
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