Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
4 years ago

Peristome-Mimetic Curved Surface for Spontaneous and Directional Separation of Micro Water-in-Oil Drops

Peristome-Mimetic Curved Surface for Spontaneous and Directional Separation of Micro Water-in-Oil Drops
Zhichao Dong, Lei Jiang, Cunlong Yu, Lei Wu, Chuxin Li
Separation of micro-scaled water-in-oil droplets is important in environmental protection, bioassays, and saving functional inks. So far, bulk oil–water separation has been achieved by membrane separation and sponge absorption, but micro-drop separation still remains a challenge. Herein we report that instead of the “plug-and-go” separation model, tiny water-in-oil droplets can be separated into pure water and oil droplets through “go-in-opposite ways” on curved peristome-mimetic surfaces, in milliseconds, without energy input. More importantly, this overflow controlled method can be applied to handle oil-in-oil droplets with surface tension differences as low as 14.7 mN m−1 and viscous liquids with viscosities as high as hundreds centipoises, which markedly increases the range of applicable liquids for micro-scaled separation. Furthermore, the curved peristome-mimetic surface guides the separated drops in different directions with high efficiency. Keep 'em separated: A curved surface resembling the peristome, that is, the fringe of small projections around the opening of a capsule of a tropical pitcher plant is prepared. It enables the spontaneous separation of water and oil from micro-scale water-in-oil drops without energy input. The separation occurs within milliseconds and the separated liquids are spontaneously and uni-directionally transported in different directions.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201706665

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