Bioinspired Continuous and Spontaneous Antigravity Oil Collection and Transportation

Liquids with low surface tension, such as petroleum, serve as the source of power for development of modern industry. Spontaneous and directional transportation of oily liquids in aqueous environment has drawn wide attentions owing to its scientific significance and practical prospect in marine petroleum exploitation and oil spill cleanup. Persistent effort has been made to the directional transportation of oil droplets under specific assistance. However, the spontaneous oriented movement of oil, especially the air/water two-phase oil delivery is still identified as a big challenge. Here, a bioinspired superoleophobic pump has been fabricated through the assembly of a superoleophobic mesh and an oil column. Depending on the directional releases of surface energy, oil droplets can be continuously collected and pumped to centimeters high without additional driving forces. The antigravity oil delivery system can realize continuous oil flow under water, even the air/water two-phase oil transportation. This work demonstrates a new mode of liquid transportation without external energy and should open a new way to design novel fluid delivery systems to realize diverse liquid transport.