Anisotropic Sliding of Underwater Bubbles On Microgrooved Slippery Surfaces by One-Step Femtosecond Laser Scanning

Slippery liquid-infused surfaces (SLIPS) with excellent liquid sliding abilities have attracted great attention due to their multifunctions in broad fields. However, current research is mainly concentrated on the isotropic SLIPS, and there are few studies about the fabrication of anisotropic SLIPS and the investigation of anisotropic bubble sliding. Herein, we reported a kind of distinct periodic microgrooved slippery surface (MGSS) by one-step femtosecond laser scanning and realized bubble anisotropic sliding in a liquid system. The MGSS enables the bubble to slide along the direction of grooves but prevents the bubble from sliding along the perpendicular direction to the groove. The mechanism is mainly related to the energy barrier difference caused by the spin-coating oil film thickness and the groove height along the parallel and perpendicular directions. The relationship between the driven force of buoyancy and the resistance of contact angle hysteresis was investigated by theoretical analysis, and the theoretical prediction showed a great adherence with the experimental results. We also studied the influence of laser power and groove period on the degree of anisotropy, and it was found that the groove space has little effect on the degree of anisotropy and the strongest bubble anisotropy can reach nearly 80°. Finally, the MGSS was successfully used in anisotropic bubble transportation on flat and curved surfaces. We believe that such functional surfaces will be promising candidates for manipulating bubble directional sliding behavior and further underwater gas collection.