DEW · Detachment of water: Light triggered water droplet release from biomimetic honeycomb-structured polymer surfaces

Detachment of water: Light triggered water droplet release from biomimetic honeycomb-structured polymer surfaces

Inspired by the Stenoccara beetle, which uses ingenious surface chemistry to collect water from the desert air, the long-term vision for the DEW project was the development of biomimetic smart polymer surfaces which can capture water from humid night air and release it upon exposure to the morning sun through a light-triggered mechanism. In moving towards this goal, new honeycomb-structured porous films (HC films) were synthesised from light-responsive polymers. By controlling both the topography and the chemical nature of the films, we hoped to manipulate the behavior of water droplets on the surfaces by using light. The originality of the project centred on the fact that 1) light-responsive HC films had not been reported, and would provide a new means for manipulating wettability beyond using previously-reported pH value and temperature; 2) new polymers containing molecules which can be switched using benign visible light (rather than potentially harmful UV-light) would open up new applications of HC films in which UV light is precluded; and 3) hierarchical structuration would exaggerate the light-triggered change in surface polarity. The project was conducted at the EPCP group (IPREM, UPPA, Pau, France) supervised by Prof. Laurent Billon and supported by the ECP team led by Dr. Sylvie Lacombe, Prof. Ross Brown, and Dr. Sylvie Blanc. In addition to exploring light-responsive HC films, light-responsive biomaterials were developed in a 3 month secondment at the Dynamic Biomaterials group at the Institute for New Materials (INM, Saarbruecken, Germany) led by Prof. Aranzazu del Campo.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union