Bioinspired interfacial materials: from binary cooperative complementary interfaces to superwettability systems

In this review, the binary cooperative complementary principle, which applies to two complementary states, has been proposed as a powerful law for construction of novel functional interfacial materials. The idea is to tune the distance between these two complementary components to match the characteristic length of certain physical interactions so that the cooperation between these complementary building blocks becomes dominant and thus endows the interfacial materials with unique properties. Since 2000, the binary cooperative complementarity for design of bioinspired superwettability systems has been applied by regulating the structural roughness to ≈100 nm to match the characteristic length of the hydrophobic interaction. It has been proved that the binary cooperative complementary law gains great success in constructing bioinspired superwettability systems. It is believed that much more novel interfacial materials with unique multifunctions will be generated following the binary cooperative complementary principle.