Feedback System Control Optimized Electrospinning for Fabrication of an Excellent Superhydrophobic Surface

Abstract

Superhydrophobic surface, as a promising micro/nano material, has tremendous applications in biological and artificial investigations. The electrohydrodynamics (EHD) technique is a versatile and effective method for fabricating micro- to nanoscale fibers and particles from a variety of materials. A combination of critical parameters, such as mass fraction, ratio of N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF) to Tetrahydrofuran (THF), inner diameter of needle, feed rate, receiving distance, applied voltage as well as temperature, during electrospinning process, to determine the morphology of the electrospun membranes, which in turn determines the superhydrophobic property of the membrane. In this study, we applied a recently developed feedback system control (FSC) scheme for rapid identification of the optimal combination of these controllable parameters to fabricate superhydrophobic surface by one-step electrospinning method without any further modification. Within five rounds of experiments by testing totally forty-six data points, FSC scheme successfully identified an optimal parameter combination that generated electrospun membranes with a static water contact angle of 160 degrees or larger. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging indicates that the FSC optimized surface attains unique morphology. The optimized setup introduced here therefore serves as a one-step, straightforward, and economic approach to fabricate superhydrophobic surface with electrospinning approach.

Preparation and Applications of Electrospun Optically Transparent Fibrous Membrane

“…Metal corrosion is caused by the direct contact between metal and water, oxygen, or acid solution, so the effective method of metal corrosion prevention is to isolate the metal itself from contacting with water, oxygen, or acid solution [ 170 , 171 ]. Usually, an anti-corrosion coating with a superhydrophobic surface could effectively reduce the contact range between the metal matrix and corrosion solution [ 172 ]. Therefore, some self-healing material due to its specific property could be applied as an anti-corrosion material, which not only has good anti-corrosion effect but also has significantly enhanced durability [ 173 ].…”

Optimizing Combinatory Drugs using Markov Chain-Based Models

“…For these reasons, the optimization of drug combination has attracted considerable attention in recent years, and several methods for predicting the optimal combinatory drug concentrations have been proposed [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. A feedback system control (FSC) method was developed to search for optimal synergistic combinatory drugs for the treatment of diseases [16].…”

Effect of different treatments and SiO2/PVDF coatings on morphology and wettability of electrospun polyamide 6 membranes

“…The roughness can be fabricated by direct electrospinning of hydrophobic materials. Feedback system control scheme was applied for rapid identification of the optimal electrospun parameters to prepare superhydrophobic polystyrene membrane by one step electrospinning by Yang et al . Chen et al .…”

“…The roughness can be fabricated by direct electrospinning of hydrophobic materials. Feedback system control scheme was applied for rapid identification of the optimal electrospun parameters to prepare superhydrophobic polystyrene membrane by one step electrospinning by Yang et al 11 Chen et al reported that the electrospun polystyrene fibers with a high fraction of open holes were fabricated due to nonsolvent-induced phase-separation, which led to a superhydrophobic surface, and controlling the fraction of good solvent and nonsolvent can change the fiber morphology. 12 Spinning solution can mix polymers with hydrophobic nanoparticles to fabricate the roughness surface.…”