• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.411-419
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• 2013

Various biomaterials have been widely used for biomedical applications, including bio-organs, medical devices, and clinical devices like vessel, blood pumps, artificial kidneys and hearts, even in contact with blood. The issue of blood compatibility has been studied intensively to prevent negative effects such as thrombosis due to the implanted devices. The use of lotus-leaf-like structured surfaces has been extended to an increasing number of applications such as contamination prevention and anticorrosion applications. Various methods such as template, sol-gel transition, layer-by-layer, and other methods, developed for the fabrication of lotus-leaf-like surfaces have been reported for major industrial applications. Recently, the non-wettable character of these surfaces has been shown to be useful for biomedical applications ranging from blood-vessel replacement to antibacterial surface treatment. In this review, we provide a summary of current and future research efforts and opportunities in the development and medical applications of lotus-leaf-like structure surfaces.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.224-224
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• 2012

For decades, carbon fiber has expanded their application fields from reinforced composites to energy storage and transfer technologies such as electrodes for super-capacitors and lithium ion batteries and gas diffusion layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Especially in fuel cell, water repellency of gas diffusion layer has become very important property for preventing flooding which is induced by condensed water could damage the fuel cell performance. In this work, we fabricated superhydrophobic network of carbon fiber with high aspect ratio hair-like nanostructure by preferential oxygen plasma etching. Superhydrophobic carbon fiber surfaces were achieved by hydrophobic material coating with a siloxane-based hydrocarbon film, which increased the water contact angle from $147^{\circ}$ to $163^{\circ}$ and decreased the contact angle hysteresis from $71^{\circ}$ to below $5^{\circ}$, sufficient to cause droplet roll-off from the surface in millimeter scale water droplet deposition test. Also, we have explored that the condensation behavior (nucleation and growth) of water droplet on the superhydrophobic carbon fiber were significantly retarded due to the high-aspect-ratio nanostructures under super-saturated vapor conditions. It is implied that superhydrophobic carbon fiber can provide a passage for vapor or gas flow in wet environments such as a gas diffusion layer requiring the effective water removal in the operation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Moreover, such nanostructuring of carbon-based materials can be extended to carbon fiber, carbon black or carbon films for applications as a cathode in lithium batteries or carbon fiber composites.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.39-40
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• 2012

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Potoscience Conference
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• spring
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• pp.55-55
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• 1999

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.1091-1094
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.365-365
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• 2010

Similar to the superhydrophobic surfaces of lotus leaf, water strider leg is attributed to hierarchical structure of micro pillar and nano-hair coated with low surface energy materials, by which water strider can run and even jump on the water surface. In order to mimick its leg, many effort, especially, on the fabrication of nanohairs has been made using several methods such as a capillarity-driven molding and lithography using poly(urethane acrylate)(PUA). However most of those effort was not so effective to create the similar structure due to its difficulty in the fabrication of nanoscale hairy structures with hydrophobic surface. In this study, we have selected a low surface energy polymeric material of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, or Teflon) assisted with surface modification of CF4 plasma treatment followed by hydrophobic surface coating with pre-cursor of hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD). It was found that the plasma energy and duration of CF4 treatment on PTFE polymer could control the aspect ratio of nano-hairy structure, which varying with high aspect ratio of more than 20 to 1, or height of over 1000nm but width of 50nm in average. The water contact angle on pristine PTFE surface was measured as approximately $115^{\circ}$. With nanostructures by CF4 plasma treatment and hydrophobic coating of HMDSO film, we made a superhydrophobic nano-hair structure with the wetting angle of over $160^{\circ}C$. This novel fabrication method of nanohairy structures has been applied not only on 2-D flat substrate but also on 3-D substrates like wire and cylinder, which is similarly mimicked the water strider's leg.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.496-496
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• 2011

A very simple and cost-effective method for fabrication of SiOx-incorporated diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films at a preparation temperature of less than $200^{\circ}C$ was developed. Since DLC coating can be prepared not under vacuum but atmospheric conditions without any carrier gas flow, not only wafers but also powderic substrates can be used for DLC coating. Formation of DLC coating could result in appearance of superhydrophobic behaviors, which was sustained in a wide range of pH (1~14). DLC-coated surfaces selectively interacted with toluene in a toluene/water mixture. These results imply that our preparation method of the DLC coating can be useful in many application fields such as creating self-cleaning surfaces, and water and air purification filters.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.120-124
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• 2013

This study is carried out to develop the new process for the fabrication of ultra-fine electrodes on the flexible substrates using superhydrophobic effect. A facile method was developed to form the ultra-fine trenches on the flexible substrates treated by plasma etching and to print the fine metal electrodes using conductive nano-ink. Various plasma etching conditions were investigated for the hydrophobic surface treatment of flexible polyimide (PI) films. The micro-trench on the hydrophobic PI film fabricated under optimized conditions was obtained by mechanical scratching, which gave the hydrophilic property only to the trench area. Finally, the patterning by selective deposition of ink materials was performed using the conductive silver nano-ink. The interface between the conductive nanoparticles and the flexible substrates were characterized by scanning electron microscope. The increase of the sintering temperature and metal concentration of ink caused the reduction of electrical resistance. The sintering temperature lower than $200^{\circ}C$ resulted in good interfacial bonding between Ag electrode and PI film substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.123-129
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• 2021

Many plants and animals in nature have superhydrophobic surfaces. This superhydrophobic surface has various properties such as self-cleaning, moisture collection, and anti-icing. In this study, the superhydrophobic properties of PTFE surface were treated by plasma etching. There were four important factors that changed the surface properties. Micro-sized protrusions were formed by plasma etching. The most influential parameter was RF Power. The contact angle of the pristine PTFE surface was about 113.8°. The maximum contact angle of the surface after plasma treatment with optimized parameters was about 168.1°. In this case, the sliding angle was quite small about 1°. These properties made it possible to remove droplets easily from the surface. To verify the self-cleaning effect of the surface, graphite was used to contaminate the surface and remove it with water droplets. Graphite particles were easily removed from the optimized surface compared to the pristine surface. As a result, a surface having water repellency and self-cleaning effects could be produced with optimized plasma etching parameters.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.77-83
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• 2022

When carbon dioxide in a liquid becomes supersaturated, carbon dioxide gas bubbles are generated in the liquid, and they ascend to the surface as they develop further. At this time, the inner wall of the cup with carbon gas attached is known as the entrapped gas cavity (EGS); once an EGS is established, it does not disappear and will continuously create carbon bubbles. This bubbling phenomenon can be activated or suppressed by changing the properties of the solid surface in contact with the carbonated liquid. In this study, the foaming of carbonated liquid is promoted or suppressed by modifying the wettability of the surface. A micro/nano surface structure is formed on the surface of an aluminum cup to produce a superhydrophilic surface, and a superhydrophobic surface similar to a lotus leaf is synthesized via fluorination. Experiment results show that the amount of carbon dioxide bubble generated differs significantly in the first few seconds depending on the surface, and that the amount of gas generated after it enters the stabilization period is the same regardless of the wettability of the cup surface.