Hua Zhou, Hongxia Wang, Haitao Niu, Tong Lin*

Supplementary Information for

Superphobicity/philicity Janus Fabrics with Switchable, Spontaneous, Directional Transport Ability to Water and Oil Fluids

Australian Future Fibres Research and Innovation Centre, Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3216, Australia

* Corresponding author, Email:

A. Directional transport of soybean oil.

Supplementary Figure S1. Still frames taken from movies showing soybean oil drop (45 µl) on the coated fabric after 14 hours of UV irradiation, a) on the UV exposed surface (time interval is 0.28s), b) on the unexposed surface (time interval is 0.55s).

B. Fluids used for the transport test, their liquid properties and transport results.

Supplementary Table S1. Fluids properties and their liquid-transport performance*

Liquids / Surface tension
(mN/m, 20 °C) / Viscosity
(mPas, 20°C) / Liquid transport performance
Pentane / 15.5 / 0.24 / dual-directional
Silicon oil / 21.5 / 9.30 / dual-directional
Ethanol / 22.3 / 1.14 / dual-directional
Chloroform / 27.1 / 0.56 / dual-directional
Hexadecane / 27.5 / 3.04 / dual-directional
Cyclopentanone / 28.2 / 1.29 / dual-directional
Soybean oil / 31.5 / 80.00 / directional (2.8s**)
Olive oil / 32.0 / 81.00 / directional (3.0s**)
Styrene / 35.0 / 0.76 / directional (1.5s**)
Ethylene glycol / 47.3 / 16.1 / directional (3.5s**)
Tetraethylene glycol / 48.0 / 58.3 / directional (4.2s**)
Glycerol / 63.4 / 1412.00 / Non-transport
Water / 72.8 / 1.00 / Non-transport

* Fabric sample: 14-hour UV-irradiated; ** Directional liquid transport time.

Soybean oil and ethylene glycol both show directional liquid transport ability. Soybean oil has higher viscosity (80.00 mPas) than ethylene glycol (16.1 mPas). However, it has shorter penetration time (2.8s) than ethylene glycol (3.5s). Similar result can also be found on olive oil and tetraethylene glycol. These indicate that liquid viscosity should have a very small effect on the directional transport ability.

C. Directional transport of hexadecane.

Supplementary Figure S2. Still frames taken from movies showing hexadecane drop (45 µl) on the coated fabric (UV irradiation for 10 hours), a) on UV exposed surface (time interval, 0.15s) and b) unexposed surface (time interval, 0.2s).

D. SEM images of the coated fabric before and after UV irradiation.

Supplementary Figure S3. SEM images of a) superamphiphobic fabric, b) & c) after 24 hours of UV irradiation b) front surface and c) unexposed surface.

E. FTIR spectra of the coated fabric before and after UV irradiation.

Supplementary Figure S4. FTIR spectra of coated fabric, the coated fabric after 24 hours UV-irradiation (UV exposed surface and unexposed surface).

Supplementary Table S2. Assignment of changed FTIR peaks

Peaks / Bonds / Vibration modes
3100-3000 / O-H / stretching
2700-2500 / / H-bond unionized carboxyl dimer stretch vibrations
1715 / C=O / stretching
1570 / H-O / stretching
1500 / C-O / bending
1238 / Si-O / asymmetric stretching
1200 / C-F / stretching
1174 / C-OH / asymmetric bending
1150 / C-F / antisymmetric stretching
1090 / Si-O-Si / antisymmetric stretching
723 / CH2 / rocking

F. ΔP change with irradiation time.

Supplementary Figure S5. Effect of irradiation time on breakthrough pressure difference (between UV exposed and unexposed surface).

G. Transport feature of different liquids on the UV-irradiated fabrics.

Supplementary Table S3. Transport feature of different liquids on the UV-irradiated fabrics*

UV irradiation time (hour) / Fabric side / CA
(°) /
(kPa) / Wetting portion
(%)
Water / Soybean oil / Hexadecane / Water / Soybean oil / Hexadecane / Water / Soybean oil / Hexadecane
10 / UV exposed / 148 / 95 / 0 / 2.25 / 1.96 / 1.67 / 0 / 20 / 55
unexposed / 165 / 158 / 150 / 1.37 / 0.98 / 0.26
14 / UV exposed / 120 / 0 / 0 / 2.15 / 1.76 / 1.27 / 0 / 52 / 85
unexposed / 164 / 155 / 145 / 0.89 / 0.29 / 0.24
24 / UV exposed / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1.94 / 1.03 / 0.39 / 48 / 100 / 100
unexposed / 154 / 120 / 70 / 0.29 / 0.25 / 0.2

*The red highlighted data is related to directional liquid transport.

H. Frames taken from high-speed digital camera to show upwards water transport on the horizontally laid fabric.

Supplementary Figure S6. Frames taken from a high-speed digital camera to show upwards water transport on the horizontally-laid fabric (24-hour UV irradiated), a) unexposed surface downwards (time interval, 0.13s), b) UV exposed surface downwards (time interval, 0.11s).

I. Upwards feeding hexadecane to a horizontally-laid fabric (24-hour UV-irradiated).

Supplementary Figure S7. Still frames taken from videos to show upwards feeding hexadecane to the parallel-laid fabric (24-hour UV-irradiated), a) UV exposed surface downwards (time interval, 0.19s), b) unexposed surface downwards (time interval, 0.22s).

J. Sideway directional transport of water and soybean oil.

Supplementary Figure S8. a) & b) Dropping water on the vertically placed fabric (24-hour UV-irradiated) on a) the unexposed surface (time interval 0.2s) and b) UV exposed surface (time interval 0.13s), c) & d) dropping soybean oil sideway on the vertically placed fabric (14-hour UV-irradiated) on c) the unexposed surface (time interval 0.45s) and d) the UV exposed surface (time interval 0.25s).

K. Influence of temperature on liquid transport time, surface tension and contact angle.

Supplementary Figure S9. Influences of temperature on a) liquid transport time of water, soybean oil and hexadecane, b) surface tension and saturated vapour pressure of water, c) water CA, and d) water viscosity. (Fabric sample, 24-hour irradiated)