Underwater transportation of bubbles and gases has essential applications in manipulating and using gas,but achieving this function at the microscopic level remains a significant challenge.Here,we report a strategy to...Underwater transportation of bubbles and gases has essential applications in manipulating and using gas,but achieving this function at the microscopic level remains a significant challenge.Here,we report a strategy to self-transport gas in water along a laser-induced open superhydrophobic microchannel with a width less than 100μm.The femtosecond laser can directly write superhydrophobic and underwater superaerophilic microgrooves on the polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)surfaces.In water,the single laser-induced microgroove and water medium generate a hollow microchannel.When the microchannel connects two superhydrophobic regions in water,the gas spontaneously travels from the small region to the large area along this hollow microchannel.Gas self-transportation can be extended to laser-drilled microholes through a thin PTFE sheet,which can even achieve anti-buoyancy unidirectional penetration.The gas can overcome the bubble’s buoyance and spontaneously travel downward.The Laplace pressure difference drives the processes of spontaneous gas transportation and unidirectional bubble passage.We believe the property of gas self-transportation in the femtosecond laser-structured open superhydrophobic and underwater superaerophilic microgrooves/microholes has significant potential applications related to manipulating underwater gas.展开更多
Zn-air batteries(ZABs)as a potential energy conversion system suffer from low power density(typically≤200 mW·cm^(−2)).Recently,three-dimensional(3D)integrated air cathodes have demonstrated promising performance...Zn-air batteries(ZABs)as a potential energy conversion system suffer from low power density(typically≤200 mW·cm^(−2)).Recently,three-dimensional(3D)integrated air cathodes have demonstrated promising performance over traditional twodimensional(2D)plane ones,which is ascribed to enriched active sites and enhanced diffusion,but without experimental evidence.Herein,we applied a bubble pump consumption chronoamperometry(BPCC)method to quantitatively identify the gas diffusion coefficient(D)and effective catalytic sites density(ρEC)of the integrated air cathodes for ZABs.Furthermore,the D andρEC values can instruct consequent optimization on the growth of Co embedded N-doped carbon nanotubes(CoNCNTs)on carbon fiber paper(CFP)and aerophilicity tuning,giving 4 times D and 1.3 timesρEC over the conventional 2D Pt/C-CFP counterparts.As a result,using the CoNCNTs with half-wave potential of merely 0.78 V vs.RHE(Pt/C:0.89 V vs.RHE),the superaerophilic CoNCNTs-CFP cathode-based ZABs exhibited a superior peak power density of 245 mW·cm^(−2) over traditional 2D Pt/C-CFP counterparts,breaking the threshold of 200 mW·cm^(−2).This work reveals the intrinsic feature of the 3D integrated air cathodes by yielding exact D andρEC values,and demonstrates the feasibility of BPCC method for the optimization of integrated electrodes,bypassing trial-and-error strategy.展开更多
Researches have investigated the formation, transportation and spreading of bubble on solid surface with specific wettability. However, bubble transfer on wettability-heterogeneous surfaces has been rarely reported, w...Researches have investigated the formation, transportation and spreading of bubble on solid surface with specific wettability. However, bubble transfer on wettability-heterogeneous surfaces has been rarely reported, which also plays significant role in water electrolysis, heat transfer, micro-bubble collection, etc.In this work, we carefully investigate the behavior of bubble transfer from the aerophobic or aerophilic region to the superaerophilic region through fabricating the wettability-heterogenous surfaces. Surface energy was elucidated to be transformed to the kinetic energy during bubble transfer process. Theoretical analysis on the average velocity of bubble transfer was consistent with the experimental results.The influence of wettability of solid substrate, bubble volume and superaerophilic stripe width on bubble transfer are carefully investigated. Moreover, wettability-heterogeneous surfaces were explored to be applied in micro-CO_(2) bubble collection and H_(2) bubble removement in water splitting.展开更多
基金the National Science Foundation of China under the Grant Nos.61875158 and 61805192the National Key Research and Development Program of China under the Grant No.2017YFB1104700+1 种基金the International Joint Research Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologiesthe Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities。
文摘Underwater transportation of bubbles and gases has essential applications in manipulating and using gas,but achieving this function at the microscopic level remains a significant challenge.Here,we report a strategy to self-transport gas in water along a laser-induced open superhydrophobic microchannel with a width less than 100μm.The femtosecond laser can directly write superhydrophobic and underwater superaerophilic microgrooves on the polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)surfaces.In water,the single laser-induced microgroove and water medium generate a hollow microchannel.When the microchannel connects two superhydrophobic regions in water,the gas spontaneously travels from the small region to the large area along this hollow microchannel.Gas self-transportation can be extended to laser-drilled microholes through a thin PTFE sheet,which can even achieve anti-buoyancy unidirectional penetration.The gas can overcome the bubble’s buoyance and spontaneously travel downward.The Laplace pressure difference drives the processes of spontaneous gas transportation and unidirectional bubble passage.We believe the property of gas self-transportation in the femtosecond laser-structured open superhydrophobic and underwater superaerophilic microgrooves/microholes has significant potential applications related to manipulating underwater gas.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.21935001 and 22379005)the Beijing Natural Science Foundation(No.Z210016)+3 种基金the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2018YFA0702002)Xinjiang Youth Science and Technology Top Talent Project(No.2022TSYCCX0053)Xinjiang Key Research and Development Project(No.2022B01003-2)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,and the long-term subsidy mechanism from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education of PRC.
文摘Zn-air batteries(ZABs)as a potential energy conversion system suffer from low power density(typically≤200 mW·cm^(−2)).Recently,three-dimensional(3D)integrated air cathodes have demonstrated promising performance over traditional twodimensional(2D)plane ones,which is ascribed to enriched active sites and enhanced diffusion,but without experimental evidence.Herein,we applied a bubble pump consumption chronoamperometry(BPCC)method to quantitatively identify the gas diffusion coefficient(D)and effective catalytic sites density(ρEC)of the integrated air cathodes for ZABs.Furthermore,the D andρEC values can instruct consequent optimization on the growth of Co embedded N-doped carbon nanotubes(CoNCNTs)on carbon fiber paper(CFP)and aerophilicity tuning,giving 4 times D and 1.3 timesρEC over the conventional 2D Pt/C-CFP counterparts.As a result,using the CoNCNTs with half-wave potential of merely 0.78 V vs.RHE(Pt/C:0.89 V vs.RHE),the superaerophilic CoNCNTs-CFP cathode-based ZABs exhibited a superior peak power density of 245 mW·cm^(−2) over traditional 2D Pt/C-CFP counterparts,breaking the threshold of 200 mW·cm^(−2).This work reveals the intrinsic feature of the 3D integrated air cathodes by yielding exact D andρEC values,and demonstrates the feasibility of BPCC method for the optimization of integrated electrodes,bypassing trial-and-error strategy.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 22175011, 22005015)。
文摘Researches have investigated the formation, transportation and spreading of bubble on solid surface with specific wettability. However, bubble transfer on wettability-heterogeneous surfaces has been rarely reported, which also plays significant role in water electrolysis, heat transfer, micro-bubble collection, etc.In this work, we carefully investigate the behavior of bubble transfer from the aerophobic or aerophilic region to the superaerophilic region through fabricating the wettability-heterogenous surfaces. Surface energy was elucidated to be transformed to the kinetic energy during bubble transfer process. Theoretical analysis on the average velocity of bubble transfer was consistent with the experimental results.The influence of wettability of solid substrate, bubble volume and superaerophilic stripe width on bubble transfer are carefully investigated. Moreover, wettability-heterogeneous surfaces were explored to be applied in micro-CO_(2) bubble collection and H_(2) bubble removement in water splitting.
