Liquids Unidirectional Transport on Dual-Scale Arrays

Liquids unidirectional transport has cutting-edge applications ranging from fog collection, oil-water separation, to microfluidic devices. Despite extensive progresses, existing man-made surfaces with asymmetric wettability or micro/nanoscales structures are still limited by complex fabrication techniques or obscure essential transport mechanisms to achieve unidirectional transport with both high speeds and large volumes. Here, we demonstrate the three-dimensional printed micro/macro dual-scale arrays for rapid, spontaneous, and continuous unidirectional transport. We reveal the essential directional transport mechanism via a Laplace pressure driven theory. The relationship between liquid unidirectional transport and surface morphology parameter is systematically explored. Threshold values to achieve unidirectional transport are determined. Significantly, dual-scale arrays even facilitate liquid's uphill running, microfluidics patterning, and liquid shunting in target directions without external energy input. Free combination of dual-scale island arrays modules, just like LEGO bricks, achieves fast liquid transport on demand. This dual-scale island array can be used to build smart laboratory-on-a-chip devices, printable microfluidic integration systems, and advanced biochemistry microreactors.