Superhydrophilic Densely‐Packed Gecko‐Like Structures by Soft‐Template Electropolymerization

Abstract Bio‐inspired by natural species and previous research works, nanotubes are prepared by soft‐template electropolymerization in micellar solution. Various thiophene‐based and carbazole‐based monomers are designed from a triphenylamine core. With one of the carbazole‐based monomers, which is fully conjugated and with a star‐like structure, gecko‐like surface structures are obtained even if the structure is not perfectly planar. Extremely long and densely packed‐microtubes are reached especially at constant potential. However, the surfaces are not both highly hydrophobic and with strong water adhesion, but are superhydrophilic. These wetting properties can be explained by a high surface energy (γ_SV)=41.9 mN m⁻¹ compared to gecko foot even if the natural gecko feet are also chemically inhomogeneous, or by differences in the arrangement of the surface structures.