Water repellent Ag/Ag2O@bamboo cellulose fiber membrane as bioinspired cargo carriers

Water striders can walk on water. To mimic this function, a porous membrane consisted of bamboo cellulose fiber was hybridized with Ag/Ag2O nanoparticles through a facile in situ method to produce water repellent and well-ventilated materials. Herein, we report the sole surface roughness created by Ag/Ag2O nanoparticles could render the membrane a water contact angle (CA) of 140 ± 3.0°. When floating on water, the hybrid membrane was able to support a heavy load more than 10 times the weight of the membrane itself. Additionally, this membrane demonstrated capabilities for oil sampling under water or oil/water separation and strong antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli. Thus we foresee that this novel hybrid membrane can be potentially utilized as drag-reducing, gas permeable and antibiotic substrates for constructing miniature aquatic devices.