In recent years, superwetting materials have received increasing attention because of their novelty and excellent performances, including self-cleaning, anti-fouling, anti-corrosion and oil-water separation, and played an important role in the real life and industry production field. However, with the continuous progress of preparation technology and the gradual deepening of research and exploration, the existing single superwetting materials can no longer meet the needs of real life, such as increasing oil spills, controlled release of drugs and microfluidic devices. On this basis, the superwetting materials that are able to respond to external stimuli, that is, the smart responsive superwetting materials come into being. In this review, basic theories and influence factors of solid surface wettability are introduced firstly. Secondly, according to the difference of external stimuli, the research and progress of the smart responsive superwetting materials, including thermoresponsive, photo-responsive, pH-responsive and electricity-responsive are reviewed. Furthermore, the wettability conversion mechanisms and properties of these smart responsive superwetting materials mentioned in the review are introduced. In order to reveal the importance of roughness to the realization of superwetting conversion, we explain it in micro-and nano-scale. Finally, some existing problems are discussed and the future research directions in this field are proposed.
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Wettability of solid surface
3 Single stimuli-responsive materials
3.1 Thermoresponsive materials
3.2 Photo-responsive materials
3.3 pH-responsive materials
3.4 Electricity-responsive materials
3.5 Solvent-responsive materials
3.6 Other responsive materials
4 Dual-and multiresponsive switchable materials
5 Existing problems
6 Conclusion