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## Meet the editor

Phuong V. Pham is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU), Taiwan. He is a pioneering scientist in materials science and electronics/optoelectronics. He has participated in industrial projects with Samsung, POSCO, the Government of Korea, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and the National Science and Technology Council

(NSTC), Taiwan. He was formerly a senior scientist at the Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center (HIC), Zhejiang University, China. He earned a Ph.D. from SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea. Then, he spent a few years as a postdoctoral researcher and research fellow at the School of Advanced Material Science and Engineering, SKKU, and at the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Material (CMCM), Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea, respectively. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award, the National Postdoctoral Award for Outstanding Young Scientists, China (2019), and the NSTC Grant Award (2023). He is a book editor and has published more than fifty peer-reviewed papers, books, and book chapters. His research interests include materials physics, surface physics, atomic film syntheses, 2D heterostructures, donors/acceptors, nanocomposites, block copolymers, and plasma engineering for electronics/optoelectronics.

### Contents


Preface

The 21st century is the age of nanotechnology, a rapidly developing field related to

Nature-inspired, self-cleaning surfaces have attracted attention for both fundamental research and practical applications. Self-cleaning ability on technical surfaces can enhance the outstanding values of products in a variety of promising applications, such as microfluidics, lap-on-chip, microreactors, air purification, anti-microbial activity, and so on. A conventional path to obtaining self-cleaning properties is creating superhydrophobic surfaces so water droplets can roll down, picking up dirt particles. This book discusses nanomaterials-based nanotechnology and chemical engineering, focusing on mechanisms, modeling, and manufacturing natureinspired, self-cleaning surfaces. It addresses the latest advancements in self-cleaning surfaces of materials and discusses how these materials can be created, focusing on scalable production. This book will strengthen our understanding of nature-inspired, self-cleaning surfaces and stimulate interdisciplinary collaborations across nanotech-

Chapter 1 introduces various biomimetic superhydrophobic materials, their fabrication approaches, and their promising applications in environmental treatment. The chapter presents the overall research directions on biomimetic superhydrophobic

Chapter 2 highlights the various self-cleaning surfaces of plants such as lotus, rice, Indian canna, taro, cabbage, Indian cress, *Salvinia molesta*, pitcher, *Anubias barteri*, and *Heliamphora nutans*. It provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms and assembling of these self-cleaning plant surfaces and their industrial applications

Chapter 3 discusses the various mechanisms for self-cleaning, including superhydrophobicity, super-hydrophilicity, and photocatalysis,, emphasizing polyurethane origin. Additionally, the chapter presents applications of such polyurethane surfaces, such as anti-fogging, anti-icing, anti-reflection, corrosion resistance, drag reduction,

Chapter 4 highlights the use of metal oxide-based nanocomposites for self-cleaning purposes. It provides an outlook of different metal oxide and metal–metal oxide nanocomposites in advancing self-cleaning properties, durability, and other mechanical properties. It also presents a variety of polymeric metal oxide-based systems and

Chapter 5 provides an overview of plasma and cold-plasma generation and the selfcleaning approaches assisted by plasma gases and related technologies such as plasma

methods and their related mechanisms for enhancing self-cleaning behavior.

nology, materials science, chemistry, biology, and engineering.

in the food, pharmaceutical, and other industries.

sensors, solar cells, and textiles.

almost every area of life.

materials.
