Stimuli-responsive wrinkled surfaces: recent advancements, challenges, and perspectives

The surface wrinkled structures of materials endow them with various properties, such as hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity, adhesion, large specific surface area, etc., which have been applied in self-cleaning surfaces, strong adhesives, ultra-sensitive sensors, etc. However, traditional wrinkled surfaces with single wrinkled structures cannot meet the demand for intelligent regulation, making the widespread application rather challenging. Recently, stimuli-responsive wrinkled surfaces, which are capable of reversibly regulating wrinkled structures (amplitude, period, etc.) have been developed to broaden their applications. Here, an overview of stimuli-responsive wrinkled surfaces is provided. First, the mechanism and design principle of surface wrinkled structures based on film/substrate bilayer systems are comprehensively analyzed. Subsequently, the latest advancements in the preparation and application of stimuli-responsive wrinkled surfaces are presented from the perspective of types of external stimuli (light, temperature, pH, humidity, solvent, and strain). Finally, the current challenges and future prospects of the stimuli-responsive wrinkled surfaces are illustrated. This review provides some insights and valuable references for the rational design of stimuli-responsive wrinkled surfaces.