Heterogenous Slippery Surfaces: Enabling Spontaneous and Rapid Transport of Viscous Liquids with Viscosities Exceeding 10 000 mPa s

Superhydrophobic and slippery lubricant-infused surfaces have garnered significant attention for their potential to passively transport low-viscosity liquids like water (1 mPa s). Despite exciting progress, these designs have proven ineffective for transporting high-viscosity liquids such as polydimethylsiloxane (5500 mPa s) due to their inherent limitations imposed by the homogenous surface design, resulting in high viscous drags and compromised capillary forces. Here, a heterogenous water-infused divergent surface (WIDS) is proposed that achieves spontaneous, rapid, and long-distance transport of viscous liquids. WIDS reduces viscous drag by spatially isolating the viscous liquids and surface roughness through its heterogenous, slippery topological design, and generates capillary forces through its heterogenous wetting distributions. The essential role of surface heterogeneity in viscous liquid transport is theoretically and experimentally verified. Remarkably, such a heterogenous paradigm enables transporting liquids with viscosities exceeding 12 500 mPa s, which is two orders of magnitude higher than state-of-the-art techniques. Furthermore, this heterogenous design is generic for various viscous liquids and can be made flexible, making it promising for various systems that require viscous liquid management, such as micropatterning.

Automated summary

This study proposes a heterogeneous water-infused divergent surface (WIDS) that can effectively transport high-viscosity liquids by reducing viscous drag through its heterogeneous, slippery topological design and generating capillary forces through its heterogeneous wetting distributions. Experimental results show that this heterogeneous design can transport liquids with viscosities exceeding 12,500 mPa s, which is two orders of magnitude higher than current state-of-the-art techniques. Furthermore, this heterogeneous design is applicable to various high-viscosity liquids and can be made flexible, making it promising for applications in systems that require viscous liquid management, such as micropatterning.