NANOMOL researchers have designed and synthesised a novel electroactive organic radical with commutable bistable redox states and then functionalized it on surfaces to provide this electric commutability and physico-chemical properties to the surface.
This advanced materials modified with a self assembled monolayer of this organic radical act as switching devices where changes in the oxidation state of the functionalizing molecule can be read following the surface wettability. After oxidizing or reducing the surface its hydrophobicity was followed by contact angle measurements revealing considerable differences (30º) when alternating from one molecular redox state to the other.

Versatility of the solvent based processing technique employed for the obtaining of the modified substrates allows us to obtain patterned substrates bearing multiple hidrofobicity domains of great importance for advanced applications.

Such system able to tune its wetting properties reversibly is of potential interest for the development of self-cleaning surfaces, microfluidics and (bio)sensors.