silicon and n-hexane

Controlling liquid adhesion on special wetting surface is significant in many practical applications. In this paper, an easy self-assembled monolayer technique was advanced to modify nanostructured copper substrates, and tunable adhesive underwater superoleophobic surfaces were prepared. The surface adhesion can be regulated by simply varying the chain length of the n-alkanoic acids, and the tunable adhesive properties can be ascribed to the combined action of surfaces nanostructures and related variation in surface chemistry. Meanwhile, the tunable ability is universal, and the oil-adhesion controllability is suitable to various oils including silicon oil, n-hexane, and chloroform. Finally, on the basis of the special tunable adhesive properties, some applications of our surfaces including droplet storage, transfer, mixing, and so on are also discussed. The paper offers a novel and simple method to prepare underwater superoleophobic surfaces with regulated adhesion, which can potentially be applied in numerous fields, for instance, biodetection, microreactors, and microfluidic devices.

Topics: Adsorption; Chloroform; Copper; Hexanes; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; Microscopy, Atomic Force; Nanostructures; Oils; Silicon; Surface Properties; Water

We present X-ray reflectivity investigations of the concentration distribution in binary liquid thin films on silicon substrates. The liquid-vapor coexistence of the binary mixture investigated, hexane and perfluorohexane, is far from criticality. Therefore, a sharp interface separates the liquid film from the vapor. The data reveal a separation of the film in layers parallel to the substrate. A phase diagram is constructed as a projection to the (composition difference, temperature) space, covering a temperature range corresponding to the one-phase and the two-phase regime of the bulk liquid. Although the composition data indicate a mixing gap similar to that of the bulk system, there are two major differences: i) only the near-surface phase changes its composition significantly, and ii) a composition gradient in the film exists also at higher temperatures where in the bulk system the one-phase regime exists.

Topics: Biophysics; Fluorocarbons; Hexanes; Silicon; Temperature; X-Rays