Polymer porous interfaces with controllable oil adhesion underwater

We prepared porous montmorillonite (MMT) clay/poly acrylic acid (PAA) composite surfaces and achieve different oil adhesion by controlling the MMT arrangement in the pore wall. Characterization of the adhesion indicates that the disordered MMT/PAA porous films can serve as low adhesive surfaces both in acidic and basic aqueous phases. The switchable oil adhesion is attributed to the change of the triple-phase liquid/liquid/solid contact line (TCL) continuity induced by the MMT arrangement in the pore wall and different hydrogen bonding interactions. These findings will help us to design novel adhesive materials by adjusting the microstructure in the film, which will be used for the construction of the future generation of microdevices and have potential applications in liquid transportation, biochemical separation, in situ detection, microfluid systems, and other areas.