Substrate-Independent, Fast, and Reversible Switching between Underwater Superaerophobicity and Aerophilicity on the Femtosecond Laser-Induced Superhydrophobic Surfaces for Selectively Repelling or Capturing Bubbles in Water

In this paper, the reversible switching between underwater (super-) aerophilicity and superaerophobicity was achieved on various femtosecond (fs) laser-induced superhydrophobic surfaces. A range of materials including Al, stainless steel, Cu, Ni, Si, poly(tetrafluoroethylene), and polydimethylsiloxane were first transformed to superhydrophobic after the formation of surface microstructures through fs laser treatment. These surfaces showed (super-) aerophilicity when immersed in water. In contrast, if the surface was prewetted with ethanol and then dipped into water, the surfaces showed superaerophobicity in water. The underwater aerophilicity of the superhydrophobic substrates could easily recover by drying. The switching between the underwater aerophilicity and superaerophobicity can be fast repeated many cycles and is substrate-independent in stark contrast to common wettability-switchable surfaces based on stimuli-responsive chemistry. Therefore, the as-prepared superhydrophobic surfaces can capture or repel air bubbles in water by selectively switching between underwater superaerophobicity and aerophilicity. Finally, we demonstrated that the underwater bubbles could pass through an underwater aerophilic porous sheet but were intercepted by an underwater superaerophobic porous sheet. The selective passage of the underwater bubbles was achieved by the reversible switching between the underwater aerophilicity and superaerophobicity. We believe that this substrate-independent and fast method of switching air wettability has important applications in controlling air behavior in water.