Premium
Long‐Term Super‐Amphiphilic Shaped‐Fiber with Multi‐Scale Grooved Structures: Toward Spontaneous Self‐Cleaning
Author(s) -
Xu Bojie,
He Meijin,
Tang Zhongxue,
Jiang Lei,
Liu Huan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.202102877
Subject(s) - materials science , self healing , capillary action , amphiphile , composite material , bamboo , fiber , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , polymer , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , engineering , copolymer
Despite long‐term exposure to the ambient environment, fabrics made of bamboo fibers enable spontaneous self‐cleaning of oil contaminants without using any surfactant. Here, it is revealed that the long‐term stable super‐amphiphilicity of bamboo fibers is responsible for self‐cleaning behavior. Liquids of both water and oil are liable to super‐spread on bamboo fibers, driven by multi‐scaled capillary forces imparted by the unique shaped fibrous structures with multi‐scale hierarchical ridges/grooves. Based on the minimization of free energy, the pre‐wetted oils can be easily removed away by forming the water film, reaching the spontaneous self‐cleaning. Notably, the super‐amphiphilicity induced by the structure shows better long‐term stability compared with that endowed by chemical modification. It is demonstrated that the bio‐inspired artificial counterpart also exhibits excellent self‐cleaning property, which inspires innovative self‐cleaning textures.