A lubricant polymer surface with biological navigation and aggregation

The lubricant surface by grafting flexible polymer brushes to improve slippery performance have widely used in drug delivery systems, anti-fouling, control chemical reaction and so on. However, the complex preparation process and the difficult manipulation of living organisms still block the practical application of lubricating surfaces. In this work, the flexible polymer brush grafted on substrate surface with slippery performance was prepared by a simple dipping strategy. The polydopamine (PDA) easily deposited on the substrate provides the reactive site to steadily graft the flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) oligomers or polymers, resulting in the PDA & s-PDMS surface showing the excellent slippery capacity (sliding angle <5o). We have made a complex route pattern by using glass sheet modified the PDA & s-PDMS surface and pristine glass to successfully control the motion of cathaica-snails, showing an attractive application in controlling intelligent navigation.