Paperboard as a substrate for biocompatible slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces

Abstract

Abstract Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces or SLIPS were first introduced in 2011 by Wong et al. who reported a bioinspired self-repairing surface with remarkable slippery properties. Generally, production of these surfaces includes fossil-based or expensive materials and processes that are available mainly in laboratory scale. In this study, slippery surfaces with sliding angles of less than 10° are obtained using fibre-based material – paperboard – that is commercially available in large-scale and also cheap compared to substrates generally used in this field. The hierarchical nanostructure that is a necessary condition for appropriate droplet mobility was obtained by the liquid flame spray method. This method is fast, scalable, has a variety of optimization parameters and can be utilized in roll-to-roll technology that is traditional in paper industry. In this work, paperboard serves not only as a substrate, but also as a reservoir for the lubricant, thus it is important to evaluate the affinity of the material for the oils and estimate the capillary movement. Therefore, Cobb and Klemm methods were used when choosing a paperboard material. In addition to synthetic oils, rapeseed oil was also utilized as a lubricant, which potentially leads to eco-friendly and recyclable slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces.