Biomimetic wetting materials for sensing: From the perspective of droplet interface behavior

Abstract

Sensing helps human beings to survive and develop better from the aspects of detecting vital signs, monitoring living environment, ensuring food safety, etc. Although many advanced advances have been made, there are still many issues in the field of surface and interface wettability, which limits the theoretical innovation and application prospects of sensors. Encouragingly, natural organism surfaces exhibit fascinating and specific wetting behaviors, and this special bionic strategy provides an advanced design idea for solving the above problems. Analyzing the essential behavior of droplet motion is crucial for improving sensing performance through wettability regulation, which can inspire novel designs of next-generation sensors from the intrinsic mechanism. Thus, this review aims to analyze the essence of enhancing sensing performance of biomimetic wetting materials from models of droplet contact with surfaces and interfaces. Some naturally wetting surfaces that are currently or potentially related to sensing are first discussed. After analyzing the basic wetting models and mechanisms for improving sensing performance, recent advances in bioinspired wetting materials for sensing are systematically and critically reviewed based on droplet interface behavior. Finally, challenges and prospects of bioinspired wetting materials for sensing are presented.