Affiliation:
1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Laboratory of Biomedical Materials, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering Beijing University of Chemical Technology 15 Beisanhuan East Road, Chaoyang District Beijing 100029 China
Abstract
AbstractMarangoni self‐propulsion refers to motion of liquid or solid driven by a surface tension gradient, and has applications in soft robots/devices, cargo delivery, self‐assembly etc. However, two problems remain to be addressed for motion control (e.g., ON–OFF) with conventional surfactants as Marangoni fuel: (1) limited motion lifetime due to saturated interfacial adsorption of surfactants; (2) in‐ situ motion stop is difficult once Marangoni flows are triggered. Instead of covalent surfactants, supra‐amphiphiles with hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts linked noncovalently, hold promise to solve these problems owing to its dynamic and reversible surface activity responsively. Here, we propose a new concept of ‘supra‐amphiphile fuel and switch’ based on the facile synthesis of disodium‐4‐azobenzene‐amino‐1,3‐benzenedisulfonate (DABS) linked by a Schiff base, which has amphiphilicity for self‐propulsion, hydrolyzes timely to avoid saturated adsorption, and provides pH‐responsive control over ON‐OFF motion. The self‐propulsion lifetime is extended by 50‐fold with DABS and motion control is achieved. The mechanism is revealed with coupled interface chemistry involving two competitive processes of interfacial adsorption and hydrolysis of DABS based on both experiments and simulation. The concept of ‘supra‐amphiphile fuel and switch’ provides an active solution to prolong and control Marangoni self‐propulsive devices for the advance of intelligent material systems.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
Cited by
1 articles.
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