@article {17599, title = {Modification of paper using polyhydroxybutyrate to obtain biomimetic superhydrophobic substrates}, journal = {COLLOIDS AND SURFACES A-PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING ASPECTS}, volume = {416}, year = {2013}, month = {2013-01-05 00:00:00}, pages = {51-55}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

Inspired in nature, the creation\ of\ synthetic\ superhydrophobic\ surfaces is nowadays a major object\ of\ study, with many potential applications in different fields. The fabrication\ of\ such\ substrates\ has been dominated by the use\ of\ non biodegradable and poorly flexible materials,\ using\ expensive and complex procedures.\ To\ overcome this issue, we propose a simple concept for fabricating low-cost, biodegradable, and flexible\ biomimeticsuperhydrophobic\ materials,\ usingpaper\ as substrate. The methodology includes the precipitation\ of\ poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) on the surface\ of\ cellulose fibers\ of\ papers\ using\ a phase separation process. The obtained surfaces showed a rough texture, at both micro and nano length scales and an apparent water contact angle\ of\ 153.0 +/- 0.7 degrees. Furthermore we showed that argon plasma treatment increases the surface wettability and it is possible\ tocontrol the wettability in certain regions by\ using\ adequate hollowed masks. Such findings could be used for the production\ of\ cheap open-microfluidic or lab-on-chip devices,\ using\ materials from renewable resources.

}, keywords = {Biomimetic, Microfluidic devices, Patterned paper, superhydrophobic surfaces}, issn = {0927-7757}, doi = {10.1016/j.colsurfa.2012.09.052}, url = {http://apps.webofknowledge.com/full_record.do?product=UA\&search_mode=GeneralSearch\&qid=7\&SID=R26mYWbF6MIAgV5us3R\&page=1\&doc=1}, author = {Obeso, C. G. and Sousa, M. P. and Song, W. L. and Rodriguez-Perez, M. A. and Bhushan, B. and Mano, J. F.} }