Yuchen Wu

Small molecular nanowire arrays assisted by superhydrophobic pillar-structured surfaces with high adhesion.

Elaborately programmed fluorescent calcein nanowire arrays can be prepared with the aid of superhydrophobic pillar-structured surfaces with high adhesion. Each nanowire can be precisely positioned by well designed tip-structured micropillars, indicating an advance in the methodologies of controlling small molecular 1D organic nanostructures. The as-prepared fluorescent nanowire arrays can serve as a ferrous salt sensing device.

Elaborate Positioning of Nanowire Arrays Contributed by Highly Adhesive Superhydrophobic Pillar‐Structured Substrates

Elaborate positioning of nanowire arrays can be generated upon highly adhesive superhydrophobic pillar-structured silicon substrates. The site of each nanowire can be precisely positioned by well designed tip-structured micropillars, yielding on-demand nanowire patterns. This approach might affect existing applications and enable new opportunities in organically functional devices and bio/chemical sensors.

A General Strategy for Assembling Nanoparticles in One Dimension

Alignment of 1D assemblies of a wide variety of nanoparticles (e.g., metal, metal oxide, semiconductor quantum dots, or organic microspheres) in one direction upon diverse substrates (including industrial silicon wafers and transparent glass plates) by a general strategy is demonstrated. This sandwich method provides an efficient way of rapidly and precisely assembling nanoparticles on a large scale (up to 10 cm × 10 cm) for device applications.

Terminating marine methane bubbles by superhydrophobic sponges.

Marine methane bubbles are absorbed, steadily stored, and continuously transported based on the employment of superhydrophobic sponges. Antiwetting sponges are water-repellent in the atmosphere and absorb gas bubbles under water. Their capacity to store methane bubbles increases with enhanced submerged depth. Significantly, trapped methane bubbles can be continuously transported driven by differential pressure.

3D Dewetting for Crystal Patterning: Toward Regular Single-Crystalline Belt Arrays and Their Functionality.

Arrays of unidirectional dewetting behaviors can be generated by using 3D-wettability-difference micropillars, yielding highly ordered organic single-crystalline belt arrays. These patterned organic belts show an improved mobility record and can be used as flexible pressure sensors with high sensitivity.

Superhydrophobicity‐Mediated Electrochemical Reaction Along the Solid–Liquid–Gas Triphase Interface: Edge‐Growth of Gold Architectures

A superhydrophobic pillar-structured electrode leads to uncommon electrochemical behavior. The anti-wetting reaction surface restricts the contact between electrolyte and electrode to the pillar tops, as a result of trapped air pockets in the gaps between pillars. The electrochemical reaction occurs mainly at the solid/liquid/gas triphase interface, instead of the traditional solid/liquid diphase surface, yielding unique edge-growth structures - for example gold microflowers - on the top of each pillar.

Free‐Standing 1D Assemblies of Plasmonic Nanoparticles

A simple yet effective method to generate free-standing 1D assemblies of gold nanoparticles by a combined top-down and bottom-up approach in conjunction with superhydrophobicity-directed fluid drying is reported. The free-standing nanoparticle assemblies can be as thin ca. 45 nm and as long as ca. 30 μm, yet mechanically strong without collapsing when held at one end. Furthermore, the 1D nanoparticle assemblies could be used as plasmonic waveguides.

Crystallographically Aligned Perovskite Structures for High-Performance Polarization-Sensitive Photodetectors

Polarization-sensitive perovskite photodetectors are realized by crystallographically aligning 1D perovskite arrays. High-quality inorganic perovskite single crystals with crystallographic order are fabricated by strictly manipulating the dewetting process of organic solution, yielding photodetectors with high photoresponsivity and fast response speed.

Smartly aligning nanowires by a stretching strategy and their application as encoded sensors.

The nanotechnology world is being more and more attracted toward high aspect ratio one-dimensional nanostructures due to their potentials as building blocks for electronic/optical devices. Here, we propose a novel method to generate nanowire patterns with assistance of superhydrophobic flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates. Micropillar gaps are tunable via a stretching process of the PDMS surface; thus, diverse nanowire patterns can be formed by stretching the same PDMS surface in various ways. Importantly, square nanowire loops with alternative compositions can be generated through a double-stretching process, showing an advanced methodology in controlling the alignment of nanowires. Since alternative fluorescent molecules will be quenched by diverse chemical substances, this alternative nanowire loop shows a selective detection for diverse target compounds, which greatly improves the application of this nanowire patterning approach. Furthermore, such alternative nanowire patterns can be transferred from pillar-structured surfaces to flat films, indicating further potentials in microcircuits, sensitive sensors, and other organic functional nanodevices.

Hybrid Top-Down/Bottom-Up Strategy Using Superwettability for the Fabrication of Patterned Colloidal Assembly

Superwettability of substrates has had a profound influence on the production of novel and advanced colloidal assemblies in recent decades owing to its effect on the spreading area, evaporation rate, and the resultant assembly structure. In this paper, we investigated in detail the influence of the superwettability of a transfer/template substrate on the colloidal assembly from a hybrid top-down/bottom-up strategy. By taking advantage of a superhydrophilic flat transfer substrate and a superhydrophobic groove-structured silicon template, the patterned colloidal microsphere assembly was formed including linear and mesh-, cyclic-, and multistopband assembly arrays of microspheres, and the optic-waveguide of a circular colloidal structure was demonstrated. We believed this liquid top-down/bottom-up strategy would open an efficient avenue for assembling/integrating microspheres building blocks into device applications in a low-cost manner.