Breath Figures: Mechanisms of Multi-scale Patterning and Strategies for Fabrication and Applications of Microstructured Functional Porous Surfaces

This book offers a complete and concise overview of the different strategies used to prepare microstructured surfaces employing information regarding surface instabilities and physical processes. Based upon the concept of the remarkably uniform layer of water vapor that is applied when one simply breathes onto a surface in cold temperatures, the book presents a comprehensive treatise addressing chemical and physical fundamentals, fabrication, and applications of the breath figures approach to surface wetting, coating, and modification (breath figures self-assembly) of various materials. The main topics of the book are divided into six parts: the control of surface properties in polymer blends; block copolymer design with the aim of providing order at different lengths; combination of block copolymer blends with the breath figures (BFs); dynamic templating; the breath figures method; biorecognition; and alternative approaches for surface structuring and functionalization.

• Discusses various physical processing methods in preparing microstructured surfaces;
• Describes relevant aspects of micro- and nanostructured surfaces from fabrication to final applications, including additive manufacturing, bacterial adhesion and entrapment, optical and electro-optical applications, and membrane technology; 
• Details the breath figures approach to surface structuring while discussing alternative strategies that tie morphology to functionality of materials. 

Dr. Juan Rodruguez-Fernandez is a professor at the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid, Spain. From 2004 through 2008 he served as a researcher at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymeres Organiques, Bordeaux, France. He received his Pn.D. from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and conducted postdoctoral studies at the Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymeres Organiques, Bordeaux, France, which was followed by a competitive recruitment at the CNRS. Since 2005, Dr. Juan Rodriguez-Hernandez’s research has been centered around the preparation of surfaces in which both functionality and nanostructure can be controlled. His research group works on controlled functionalization and hierarchical structure of polymer surfaces. 

Edward Bormashenko is the Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science of the Ariel University, Israel. He is an author of more than 250 papers and 2 monographs. His scientific interest include: surface and polymer science, meta-materials, processes of self-assembly and self-organization, superhydrophobicity, superoleophobicity, creating of surfaces with pre-scribed properties, plasma- and UV-treatment of surfaces, self-propulsion.