Patterned Slippery Surface for Bubble Directional Transportation and Collection Fabricated via a Facile Method

Abstract

Directional manipulation of underwater bubbles on a solid surface has attracted much attention due to its large-scale applications such as electrocatalytic gas evolution reactions, wastewater remediation, and solar energy harvesting. In this work, the patterned slippery surface (PSS) is fabricated via a facile method where the patterned pathways are fabricated by means of etching the pristine copper sheet. These patterned surfaces consisted of pristine copper and modified oxide copper which exhibit different wettability for bubble and water. The superhydrophobic and aerophilic surface can efficiently capture bubbles, and the infused oil layer is beneficial for reducing the resistance during transportation. Furthermore, the bubble can move upward, downward, and horizontally. Hence, it is easy to realize the bubble’s transportation and collection on the functional surfaces.