Robust Polypropylene Fabrics Super-Repelling Various Liquids: A Simple, Rapid and Scalable Fabrication Method by Solvent Swelling.

A simple, rapid (10 s) and scalable method to fabricate superhydrophobic polypropylene (PP) fabrics is developed by swelling the fabrics in cyclohexane/heptane mixture at 80 °C. The recrystallization of the swollen macromolecules on the fiber surface contributes to the formation of submicron protuberances, which increase the surface roughness dramatically and result in superhydrophobic behavior. The superhydrophobic PP fabrics possess excellent repellency to blood, urine, milk, coffee, and other common liquids, and show good durability and robustness, such as remarkable resistances to water penetration, abrasion, acidic/alkaline solution, and boiling water. The excellent comprehensive performance of the superhydrophobic PP fabrics indicates their potential applications as oil/water separation materials, protective garments, diaper pads, or other medical and health supplies. This simple, fast and low cost method operating at a relatively low temperature is superior to other reported techniques for fabricating superhydrophobic PP materials as far as large scale manufacturing is considered. Moreover, the proposed method is applicable for preparing superhydrophobic PP films and sheets as well.

Smart enrichment and facile separation of oil from emulsions and mixtures by superhydrophobic/superoleophilic particles.

The separation and removal of oil or organic pollutants from water is highly imperative. The oil phases in surfactant-free oil-in-water emulsions or in free oil/water mixtures can be smartly enriched and transported by using superhydrophobic/superoleophilic iron particles (SHIPs) under a magnetic field. For water-in-oil emulsion, SHIPs-based composite membranes selectively allow the oil to pass through. Their convenient and scalable preparation, excellent separation performance, and good reusability are of great advantages for practical applications in wastewater treatment, the cleanup of oil spills, emulsion concentration, and fuel purification.

Bioinspired materials: from low to high dimensional structure.

The surprising properties of biomaterials are the results of billions of years of evolution. Generally, biomaterials are assembled under mild conditions with very limited supply of constituents available for living organism, and their amazing properties largely result from the sophisticated hierarchical structures. Following the biomimetic principles to prepare manmade materials has drawn great research interests in materials science and engineering. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in fabricating bioinspired materials with the emphasis on mimicking the structure from one to three dimensions. Selected examples are described with a focus on the relationship between the structural characters and the corresponding functions. For one-dimensional materials, spider fibers, polar bear hair, multichannel plant roots and so on have been involved. Natural structure color and color shifting surfaces, and the antifouling, antireflective coatings of biomaterials are chosen as the typical examples of the two-dimensional biomimicking. The outstanding protection performance, and the stimuli responsive and self-healing functions of biomaterials based on the sophisticated hierarchical bulk structures are the emphases of the three-dimensional mimicking. Finally, a summary and outlook are given.