Abstract: With the development of surface science, surface with special wettability, such as reversible or gradient, gradually becomes the focus of the field of science now. Here, via a facile, green organic solvent-free route, we have fabricated superhydrophobic hybrid MWCNTs membrane on mixed cellulose ester filter with great flexibility and tailorability. Importantly, induced by acetic acid vapour and NH3 vapour without external energy, wettability of it can be reversibly switched between superhydrophobic (low adhesion) to hydrophobic (high adhesion). Furthermore, hybrid MWCNTs membrane can achieve diverse range of gradient wettability. The principle of theory behind phenomenon also has been explained through surface chemical composition and microscopic surface topography by means of Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) images, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transformer infrared spectra (FTIR) spectroscopy. This work has solved some critical problems in this field. The limitations and potential application of our work also be summarized.

KeyWords Plus:CARBON NANOTUBES; SUPERHYDROPHOBIC SURFACE; GRADIENT; WATER; COATINGS; COPPER; SUPERWETTABILITY; NANOSTRUCTURES; CONDENSATION; FABRICATION

Published in JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE, 484 173-182; 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.08.084 DEC 15 2016