Location:
Faculty Hall
Title: Lessons from Nature: Bioinspired Mechanically Durable and Self-healing Superliquiphilic/phobic Surfaces
Speaker: Dr. Bharat Bhushan, Academy Professor, Ohio State University
Abstract: Living nature, through some 3 billion years of evolution, has developed materials, objects, and processes that function from the nanoscale to the macroscale. The understanding of the functions provided by species and processes found in living nature can guide us to design and produce bioinspired surfaces for various applications [1,2]. There are a large number of flora and fauna with properties of commercial interest. Nature provides many examples of surfaces that repel (hydrophobic) or attract (hydrophilic) water. The most famous is the lotus leaf. Its surface contains a hierarchical structure that, combined with specific surface chemistry, results in a water repellant surface that is self-cleaning, as water droplets collect contaminants as they roll off. Some plant leaves, such as fagus leaves, are hydrophilic, allowing water to rapidly spread into a thin layer, increasing evaporation, leading to a dry and self-cleaning surface. By taking inspiration from nature, it is possible to create hierarchically structured surfaces with re-entrant geometry and surface chemistry that provide multifunctional properties including superliquiphilicity/phobicity, self-cleaning/low biofouling, and/or low drag.
A facile, substrate-independent, multilayered nanoparticle/binder composite coating technique has been developed to produce various combinations of water and oil repellency and affinity with self-cleaning properties [3]. These coatings having a so-called re-entrant geometry can also repel surfactant-containing liquids. Some of the nanostructured surfaces have been found to be anti-bacterial [4]. These coatings provide the basis to fabricate surfaces for a range of applications including self-cleaning, anti-fouling, anti-smudge, optical transparency, anti-fogging, anti-icing, low drag, water purification, and oil–water separation [1,3-7]. The coatings have been found to be mechanically durable and self-healing [3,5].
[1] Bhushan, B., Biomimetics: Bioinspired Hierarchical-Structured Surfaces for Green Science and Technology, third ed., Springer (2018).
[2] Nosonovsky, M. and Bhushan, B., Multiscale Dissipative Mechanisms and Hierarchical Surfaces: Friction, Superhydrophobicity, and Biomimetics, Springer (2008).
[3] Bhushan, B., “Lessons from Nature for Green Science and Technology: An Overview and Superliquiphoboc/philic Surfaces,” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 377, 20180274 (2019).
[4] Bixler, G. D., Theiss, A., Bhushan, B., and Lee, S. C., “Anti-fouling Properties of Microstructured Surfaces Bio-inspired by Rice Leaves and Butterfly Wings,” J. Colloid Interface Sci. 419, 114-133 (2014).
[5] Multanen, V. and Bhushan, B, “Bioinspired Self-healing, Superliquiphobic and Self-cleaning Hydrogel- coated Surfaces with High Durability, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 377, 20190117 (2019).
[6] Nosonovsky, M. and Bhushan, B., Green Tribology: Biomimetics, Energy Conservation and Sustainability, Springer (2012).
[7] TED Talk – Lessons from Nature: Bioinspired Surfaces for Green Tech, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAH0N328okE
Bio: Professor Bhushan is currently a Satish Dhawan loE Visiting Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Science. He was born in a small town, Jhinjhana, India. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science. He received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an M.S. in Mechanics, a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prof. Bhushan is an Academy Professor at Ohio State. He has served as an Ohio Eminent Scholar, and The Howard D. Winbigler Professor in the College of Engineering. He has authored 10 scientific books, over 100 book chapters, more than 900 scientific papers and 60 technical reports. As well as receiving more than two dozen awards from professional societies, industry and U.S. Government Agencies, Prof. Bhushan received NASA’s ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ to recognize the critical tasks that he performed in support of President Reagan’s Commission investigating the Space Shuttle ‘Challenger’ Accident.
