writer：H. Bai, X. Tian, Y. Zheng*, J. Ju & L. Jiang*
keywords：Bioinspired materials, driving
source：期刊
specific source：Adv. Matter. 2010, 22, 5521–5525
Issue time：2010年

Inspired by the spider silk, we fabricated a series of artifi cial spider silks with spindle-knots in which the chemical compositions and surface nanostructures were subtly designed. Our investigations demonstrated that tiny water drops (tens of picoliters) could be driven with controllable direction (“toward” or “away from” the knot) by optimizing the cooperation of curvature, chemical, and roughness gradients on the fi ber surfaces. The study will pave the way for designing smart materials and devices to drive tiny water drops in a controllable manner.