Tailoring micro/nano-materials with special wettability for biomedical devices

Abstract

Wettability, as a fundamental property of interface materials, is becoming increasingly prominent in frontier research areas, such as water harvesting, microfluidics, biomedicine, sensors, decontamination, wearables, and micro-electromechanical systems. Taking advantage of biological paradigm inspirations and manufacturing technology advancements, diverse wettability materials with precisely customized micro/nano-structures have been developed. As a result of these achievements, wettability materials have significant technical ramifications in sectors spanning from academics to industry, agriculture, and biomedical engineering. Practical applications of wettability-customized materials in medical device domains have drawn significant scientific interest in recent decades due to the increased emphasis on healthcare. In this review, recent advances of wettability-customized micro/nano-materials for biomedical devices are presented. After briefly introducing the natural wettable/non-wettable phenomena, the fabrication strategies and novel processing techniques are discussed. The study emphasizes the application progress of biomedical devices with customized wettability. The future challenges and opportunities of wettability-customized micro/nano-materials are also provided.