Fabrics coated with lubricated nanostructures display robust omniphobicity

Abstract

The development of a stain-resistant and pressure-stable textile is desirable for consumer and industrial applications alike, yet it remains a challenge that current technologies have been unable to fully address. Traditional superhydrophobic surfaces, inspired by the lotus plant, are characterized by two main components: hydrophobic chemical functionalization and surface roughness. While this approach produces water-resistant surfaces, these materials have critical weaknesses that hinder their practical utility, in particular as robust stain-free fabrics. For example, traditional superhydrophobic surfaces fail (i.e., become stained) when exposed to lowsurface-tension liquids, under pressure when impacted by a high-velocity stream of water (e.g., rain), and when exposed to physical forces such as abrasion and twisting. We have recently introduced slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS), a self-healing, pressure-tolerant and omniphobic surface, to address these issues. Herein we present the rational design and optimization of nanostructured lubricant-infused fabrics and demonstrate markedly improved performance over traditional superhydrophobic textile treatments: SLIPS-functionalized cotton and polyester fabrics exhibit decreased contact angle hysteresis and sliding angles, omnirepellent properties against various fluids including polar and nonpolar liquids, pressure tolerance and mechanical robustness, all of which are not readily achievable with the state-ofthe-art superhydrophobic coatings.2

Immobilized liquid layers: A new approach to anti-adhesion surfaces for medical applications

“…24 A larger number of studies on ILs have used silicone oil as the infusing liquid, which as a medical-grade product has been used for ocular tamponades 25 and off-label for cosmetic reconstructions. 26 Perfluoropolyethers and perfluorotripentylamines have also been extensively used as ILs due to their repellency of both water-and oil-based compounds, 8,9,11,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33] however, these have not yet been thoroughly evaluated for toxicity.…”

Polymeric Slippery Coatings: Nature and Applications

“…Shillingford et al [74] demonstrated that fabrics such as cotton and polyester could be treated to become SLIPS. Thus, the treated materials could be used as stain-free fabrics since they could repel even low-surface-tension liquids.…”

Air-stable droplet interface bilayers on oil-infused surfaces

“…In contrast to dry, superomniphobic surfaces (6), lubricant-infused surfaces demonstrate stable liquid repellency at extreme pressures and temperatures (5,7), are self-healing to mechanical damage (5), and their wettability and optical properties can be tuned (7,8). A wide variety of applications are being explored for lubricant-infused surfaces, such as enhancing condensation heat transfer (9,10), self-cleaning (11), fog harvesting (12), and omniphobic textiles (13), or minimizing ice nucleation (14,15), ice adhesion (16,17), and biofouling (18). Though previous studies have characterized the dynamics and possible wetting states of isolated droplets on lubricant-infused surfaces (5,(19)(20)(21)(22), the interactive behavior of multiple droplets has not been reported.…”