Artificial Organic Skin Wets Its Surface by Field-Induced Liquid Secretion

Yuanyuan Zhan; Guofu Zhou; Brigitte A.G. Lamers; Fabian L.L. Visschers; Marco M.R.M. Hendrix; Dirk J. Broer; Danqing Liu

doi:10.1016/j.matt.2020.05.015

Artificial Organic Skin Wets Its Surface by Field-Induced Liquid Secretion

Yuanyuan Zhan
, Guofu Zhou (Corresponding author)
, Brigitte A.G. Lamers
, Fabian L.L. Visschers
, Marco M.R.M. Hendrix
, Dirk J. Broer (Corresponding author)
, Danqing Liu (Corresponding author)

ICMS Core member

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)

131 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Living organisms enhance their survival rate by excreting fluids at their surface, but man-made materials can also benefit from liquid secretion from a solid surface. Known approaches to secrete a liquid from solids are limited to passive release driven by diffusion, surface tension, or pressure. Remotely triggered release would give active control over surface properties but is still exceptional. Here, we report on an artificial skin that secretes functional fluids by means of radiofrequency electrical signals driven by dielectric liquid transport in a (sub-)microporous smectic liquid crystal network. The smectic order of the polymer network and its director determine the flow direction and enhance fluid transport toward the surface at pre-set positions. The released fluid can be reabsorbed by the skin using capillary filling. The fluid-active skins open avenues for robotic handling of chemicals and medicines, controlling tribology and fluid-supported surface cleaning.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	782-793
Number of pages	12
Journal	Matter
Volume	3
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2020.05.015
Publication status	Published - 2 Sept 2020

Funding

We thank Simon Houben for his contribution on SEM measurement, Dr. Hubert Gojzewski for AFM measurement, and Tom Bus for discussions. The results presented are part of research programs financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 51561135014 , U1501244 ), Guangdong Innovative Research Team Program (no. 2013C102 ), European Research Commission under ERC Advanced Grant 66999 (VIBRATE), and NWO VENI grant 15135 .

Funders	Funder number
European Union's Horizon 2020 - Research and Innovation Framework Programme	669991
European Union's Horizon 2020 - Research and Innovation Framework Programme	66999
National Natural Science Foundation of China	U1501244, 51561135014
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	15135

Keywords

artificial polymer skin
chemical release
liquid crystal network
liquid secretion
MAP4: Demonstrate
radio frequency electric field

Access to Document

10.1016/j.matt.2020.05.015

Yuanyuan Zhan et al_Matter 2020Final published version, 3.04 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

https://www.cell.com/matter/fulltext/S2590-2385(20)30248-4

Cite this

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title = "Artificial Organic Skin Wets Its Surface by Field-Induced Liquid Secretion",

abstract = "Living organisms enhance their survival rate by excreting fluids at their surface, but man-made materials can also benefit from liquid secretion from a solid surface. Known approaches to secrete a liquid from solids are limited to passive release driven by diffusion, surface tension, or pressure. Remotely triggered release would give active control over surface properties but is still exceptional. Here, we report on an artificial skin that secretes functional fluids by means of radiofrequency electrical signals driven by dielectric liquid transport in a (sub-)microporous smectic liquid crystal network. The smectic order of the polymer network and its director determine the flow direction and enhance fluid transport toward the surface at pre-set positions. The released fluid can be reabsorbed by the skin using capillary filling. The fluid-active skins open avenues for robotic handling of chemicals and medicines, controlling tribology and fluid-supported surface cleaning.",

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AU - Zhan, Yuanyuan

AU - Zhou, Guofu

AU - Lamers, Brigitte A.G.

AU - Visschers, Fabian L.L.

AU - Hendrix, Marco M.R.M.

AU - Broer, Dirk J.

AU - Liu, Danqing

PY - 2020/9/2

Y1 - 2020/9/2

N2 - Living organisms enhance their survival rate by excreting fluids at their surface, but man-made materials can also benefit from liquid secretion from a solid surface. Known approaches to secrete a liquid from solids are limited to passive release driven by diffusion, surface tension, or pressure. Remotely triggered release would give active control over surface properties but is still exceptional. Here, we report on an artificial skin that secretes functional fluids by means of radiofrequency electrical signals driven by dielectric liquid transport in a (sub-)microporous smectic liquid crystal network. The smectic order of the polymer network and its director determine the flow direction and enhance fluid transport toward the surface at pre-set positions. The released fluid can be reabsorbed by the skin using capillary filling. The fluid-active skins open avenues for robotic handling of chemicals and medicines, controlling tribology and fluid-supported surface cleaning.

AB - Living organisms enhance their survival rate by excreting fluids at their surface, but man-made materials can also benefit from liquid secretion from a solid surface. Known approaches to secrete a liquid from solids are limited to passive release driven by diffusion, surface tension, or pressure. Remotely triggered release would give active control over surface properties but is still exceptional. Here, we report on an artificial skin that secretes functional fluids by means of radiofrequency electrical signals driven by dielectric liquid transport in a (sub-)microporous smectic liquid crystal network. The smectic order of the polymer network and its director determine the flow direction and enhance fluid transport toward the surface at pre-set positions. The released fluid can be reabsorbed by the skin using capillary filling. The fluid-active skins open avenues for robotic handling of chemicals and medicines, controlling tribology and fluid-supported surface cleaning.

KW - artificial polymer skin

KW - chemical release

KW - liquid crystal network

KW - liquid secretion

KW - MAP4: Demonstrate

KW - radio frequency electric field

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ER -

Artificial Organic Skin Wets Its Surface by Field-Induced Liquid Secretion

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Artificial skin heals wounds and makes robots sweat

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Artificial Organic Skin Wets Its Surface by Field-Induced Liquid Secretion

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Artificial skin heals wounds and makes robots sweat

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