Self-assembly is the fundamental principle, which can occur spontaneously in nature. Through billions of years of evolution, nature has learned what is optimal. The optimized biological solution provides some inspiration for scientists and engineers. In the past decade, tinder the multi-disciplinary collaboration, bio-inspired special wetting surfaces have attracted much attention for both fundamental research and practical applications. In this review, we focus on recent research progress in bio-inspired special wetting surfaces via self-assembly, such as low adhesive superhydrophobic surfaces, high adhesive superhydrophobic surfaces, superamphiphobic surfaces, and stimuli-responsive surfaces. The challenges and perspectives of this research field in the future are also briefly addressed.
Through billions of years of evolution, nature has optimized the programmed assembly of the nano- and micro-scale structures of biological materials. Nanoparticle assembly provides an avenue for mimick- ing these multiscale functional structures. Bio-inspired surfaces with special wettability have attracted much attention for both fundamental research and practical applications. In this review, we focus on recent progress in nanoparticle assembly-induced special wettability, including superhydrophilic surfaces, superhydrophobic surfaces, superamphiphobic surfaces, stimuli-responsive surfaces, and self- healing surfaces. A brief summary and an outlook of the future of this research field are also provided.
