Precise control of a biological droplet's adhesive force on a liquid-repellent surface for smart antifouling systems is critical and fundamental to scientific research and industrial applications. Although slippery surfaces with stimuli-responsive wetting behaviors have been reported, challenge still remains in designing responsive biological droplets to achieve controllable adhesion and antifouling property. Here, we developed a thermoresponsive biological droplet adhesion system to precisely control its adhesion on the lubricant-infused slippery surface. Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) in the biological droplet displays molecular configuration reversible deformation under external thermal stimuli. This property ascribes to the changing amount of exposed hydrophobic moieties of ssDNA, which strongly affects the interfacial hydrophobic interaction with the lubricant. This work may improve the understanding of the principles underlying liquid−lubricant interfacial adhesion, open up opportunities for a new class of antifouling systems, and provide a promising system for controllable manipulation of liquids' motion in biochips and microreactor devices.

Namib Desert beetles harvest water from harsh environments by using their hydrophilic-hydrophobic dorsal surfaces. Generally, Cassie-state superhydrophobic materials are chosen as substrates to prepare bioinspired (super)hydrophilic/(super)hydrophobic patterned surfaces. However, due to the low adhesion and strong repellency, aqueous solution cannot be directly set on Cassie superhydrophobic materials until the dropping volume is larger than 6.5 μL. Therefore, arranging a (super)hydrophilic substance on Cassie superhydrophobic substrates to construct (super)hydrophilic/superhydrophobic patterned surfaces still remains a challenge. In this work, by prewetting with dichloromethane (DCM), the mussel-inspired hydrophilic and bio-adhesive dopamine solution (DA) could be dripped onto a Cassie superhydrophobic Cu surface with an ultralow volume of 0.1 μL, whereby low surface tension DCM would "cloak" the high surface tension DA. Along with DCM volatility, DA was adhered on the Cassie superhydrophobic surface and would then self-polymerize into hydrophilic polydopamine domains, thus hydrophilic/superhydrophobic patterned surfaces with efficient water collection could be successfully developed inspired by Namib Desert beetles and mussels. The bioinspired materials show the potential for real-world industrialization in a large scale, which is of great significance for providing living security for those living in areas with no access to fresh water.

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The UV-resistant superhydrophobic material was fabricated with the features of photocatalysis, self-cleaning, self-healing and oil/water separation.

In the field of interface science, superwettability and photocatalysis are two significant research hot spots. Currently, wettability has been proved to be a decisive factor to enhance photocatalytic activity, such as self-cleaning, degradation efficiency, water purification, antibacterial, gas evaluation, reduction, fixation, H 2 O 2 generation, and so on. In this review, we summarize the recent developments of photocatalysts based on varied bioinspired wettabilities. In the beginning, the amazing wetting behaviors of natural creatures, i.e., superhydrophilic fish scale and clam shell, superhydrophobic lotus leaf and rose petal, patterned wettable desert beetle, slippery pitcher plant, and oleophobic springtail were are and their corresponding wetting models are also exhibited. Subsequently, the catalytic mechanisms of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C 3 N 4 ) are discussed. Subsequently, materials based on bioinspired superwetting, including (super)hydrophilicity, superhydrophobicity, patterned superwetting, responsive (super)wetting, Janus (super)wetting, slippery, and superamphiphobicity, are respectively exemplified. Finally, concerns and outlooks related to bioinspired superwettable photocatalysts are proposed. It is believed that bioinspired superwetting in photocatalysis will become an emerging research hot spot in the near future.