Thermally responsive paraffin-infused slippery surfaces have demonstrated intriguing performance in manipulating the behaviors of versatile droplets. However, present methods have been limited to ex situ rigid heat sources with a high voltage of 220 V or certain specific photothermal materials, which greatly hinders its practical applications. To solve this problem, an intelligent droplet motion control actuator (DMCA) composed of paraffin wax, hydrophobic micropillar-arrayed ZnO film, and a flexible transparent silver nanowire heater (SNWH) is reported in this work. Due to the good portability of DMCA, in situ switchable wettability for several liquid droplets with different surface tensions can be achieved by simply loading and unloading Joule heat at an ultra-low voltage (12 V). The relationship among sliding velocity and droplet volume and inclined angles was quantitatively investigated. By virtue of the flexible and mechanical endurance, this smart DMCA is dramatically functional for droplet motion manipulation (e.g., reversible control between sliding and pinning) on complex 3D surfaces. Significantly, an impressive self-healing ability within 22 s is also demonstrated through the in situ application of Joule heat on the scratched DMCA, which renders its practical usability in various harsh conditions. This work provides insights for designing intelligent, flexible, and portable actuators dealing with the challenges of smart temperature-responsive surfaces.

Pitcher plant-bioinspired bubble slippery surface fabricated by femtosecond laser for buoyancy-driven bubble self-transport and efficient gas capture.

Femtosecond laser direct writing (FLDW) has been widely employed in controllable manufacturing of biomimetic micro/nanostructures due to its specific advantages including high precision, simplicity, and compatibility for diverse materials in comparison with other methods (e.g. ion etching, sol-gel process, chemical vapor deposition, template method, and self-assembly). These biomimetic micro/nanostructured surfaces are of significant interest for academic and industrial research due to their wide range of potential applications, including self-cleaning surfaces, oil-water separation, and fog collection. This review presents the inherent relationship between natural organisms, fabrication methods, micro/nanostructures and their potential applications. Thereafter, we throw a list of current fabrication strategies so as to highlight the advantages of FLDW in manufacturing bioinspired microstructured surfaces. Subsequently, we summarize a variety of typical bioinspired designs (e.g. lotus leaf, pitcher plant, rice leaf, butterfly wings, etc) for diverse multifunctional micro/nanostructures through extreme femtosecond laser processing technology. Based on the principle of interfacial chemistry and geometrical optics, we discuss the potential applications of these functional micro/nanostructures and assess the underlying challenges and opportunities in the extreme fabrication of bioinspired micro/nanostructures by FLDW. This review concludes with a follow up and an outlook of femtosecond laser processing in biomimetic domains.

Shape memory polymers can change their shapes in a controlled way under external stimuli and thus promote the development of smart devices, soft robotics, and microfluidics. Here, a kind of iron particles (IPs) doped shape memory microcone is developed for noncontact all‐in‐situ reversible tuning between the tilted and upright state under near‐infrared (NIR) irradiation and magnetic field (MF) actuation. The magnetic microcones are simply fabricated by a laser‐ablated replica‐molding strategy so that their height can be precisely controlled by adjusting the laser machining parameters. In addition, it is found that the droplets can be transported unidirectionally on the tilted microcones, which is related to the variation of the adhesion force induced by the length of the triple contact line (TCL). Finally, other multifunctional applications have also been realized, such as, selective droplet release, information encryption, rewritable display, and reusable temperature switch. This work may provide a facile strategy for developing multiresponsive smart devices based on shape memory polymers.

Photosynthetic carbon converted to sucrose is vital for plant growth. Sucrose acts as a signaling molecule and a primary energy source that coordinates the source and sink development. Alteration in source–sink balance halts the physiological and developmental processes of plants, since plant growth is mostly triggered when the primary assimilates in the source leaf balance with the metabolic needs of the heterotrophic sinks. To measure up with the sink organ’s metabolic needs, the improvement of photosynthetic carbon to synthesis sucrose, its remobilization, and utilization at the sink level becomes imperative. However, environmental cues that influence sucrose balance within these plant organs, limiting positive yield prospects, have also been a rising issue over the past few decades. Thus, this review discusses strategies to improve photosynthetic carbon assimilation, the pathways actively involved in the transport of sucrose from source to sink organs, and their utilization at the sink organ. We further emphasize the impact of various environmental cues on sucrose transport and utilization, and the strategic yield improvement approaches under such conditions.