Bioinspired design of honeycomb structure interfaces with controllable water adhesion.

Inspired by biological attachment systems, we fabricated the honeycomb structural films with different diameters by breath figure (BF) method, which were similar to the patterned octopus suckers. The experimental results showed, besides different van der Waals forces between the polystyrene (PS) surfaces and water, another important factor; that is, different negative pressures produced by different volumes of sealed air could be a crucial factor for the different adhesions. So the water adhesive forces of the as-prepared films can be effectively controlled from relative high to relative low adhesion by varying the pore diameters, which effectively adjusted the negative pressures produced by the pores. This unique adhesive phenomenon of honeycomb structure will be very useful for manipulating water droplet behaviors, as well as controlling liquid collection and transportation. These findings are interesting and helpful for us to further understand the biological attachment systems and to optimize the design of artificial analogues.