TY - JOUR
TI - Biomimetic microspheres with rough structure by the geometric potential theory
AU - Xu Zhen-Zhen
AU - Yang Qin-Qin
AU - Wang Li-Bin
AU - Guan Ming-Qiang
AU - Liu Zhi
AU - Zhao Jiang-Hui
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2024
VL - 28
IS - 3
SP - 2269
EP - 2275
PT - Article
AB - Rough structure microspheres developed using electrospinning show many  superior properties, such as increased specific surface area and enhanced  wettability, yielding numerous benefits to the applications in adsorption,  separation, and others. In this study, biomimetic rough microspheres on  string of polymethyl methacrylate nanofiber with hierarchical structure of  micron-scale microsphere, and nanoscale Y-shape edges on the microsphere  were innovatively and success-fully developed by electrospinning. The  resulting microsphere exhibited a steering-wheel-like Y shape, and the  formation process was physically explained by the geometric potential  theory. In the spinning process, irregular hexahedron-like droplet was  firstly formed. Then, the hexahedron-like droplet changed to  tetrahedron-like after the bottom contacted the collector. The  tetrahedron-like droplet evolved into Y-shaped microsphere due to the  geometric potential and the collapse of the center part owing to the  solvent evaporation. Furthermore, similar to the natural lotus leaf, the  hierarchical steering-wheel structure strengthened the nanofiber membrane  roughness and endowed the membrane with superhydro-phobicity, indicating the  potential application in water treatment (oil-water separation, and dye and  heavy metal ion adsorption), functional surface materials (self-cleaning  fabrics), energy generation and other salient areas.