Wendong Liu, Xueyao Liu, Siyuan Xiang, Yixin Chen, Liping Fang, and Bai Yang*

Nano Res. 2016, 9, 3141-3151.

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    A functional interface based on silicon chamfer nanocylinder arrays (CNCAs) was successfully fabricated by secondary etching of silicon nanopillar arrays via a facile inclined etching method. The feature structure of this novel CNCAs was finely modulated by varying the structure parameter of the nanopillar arrays and the etching conditions. The underwater oil wetting behavior of this CNCAs-based interface can be easily modulated from superoleophilic (oil contact angle (OCA) ca. 8.13°) to superoleophobic (OCA ca. 163.79°) states by modifying the surface with different substances. Moreover, a reversible underwater oil wetting behavior from superoleophobic (OCA ca. 155.67°) to oleophilic (OCA ca. 31.27°) states was achieved by grafting a temperature-responsive polymer onto this specific asymmetric structure. Thus functional interface showed an isotropic wetting behavior under certain oleophilic condition. Chemically-heterogeneous structures, obtained via asymmetry modification of CNCAs, showed amphiphobic properties while maintaining their anisotropic wetting ability.