Biotemplated Fabrication of a Multifunctional Superwettable Shape Memory Film for Wearable Sensing Electronics and Smart Liquid Droplet Manipulation

Wearable
superwettable surfaces with dynamic tunable wettability
and self-healability are promising for advanced wearable electronics,
whereas have been rarely reported. Herein, a flexible superhydrophobic
shape memory film (SSMF) with switchable surface wettability and high
strain sensitivity has been conveniently fabricated. The surface topography
of the SSMF can be finely adjusted by a reversible stretching (bending)/recovery
way, which makes it feasible to control the surface-switchable adhesive
superhydrophobicity by simple body movements, demonstrating great
advantages in selective droplet manipulation and smart control of
droplet movement. Moreover, benefitting from the hierarchical micro/nanostructures
and outstanding sensing performance, the flexible SSMFs with good
adaptivity and durability can serve as smart wearable sensors attached
to human skin to achieve full-range and real-time detection of human
motions and intelligent control of Internet of Things. More interestingly,
the unique dynamic dewetting property enables the sensors to work
in a humid environment or rainy days. Overall, this work successfully
integrates dynamic tunable superwettability into design of intelligent
wearable electronics with multifunctions. The obtained SSMF-based
wearable surface with dynamic dewetting properties reveals great potential
in versatile application fields such as liquid-repellent electronics,
wearable droplet manipulators, and all-weather intelligent actuators.