The bubbles formed on the electrodes tend to stick to the reaction area during hydrogen (H₂) production, hindering the continuous reaction, which drastically reduces the H₂ production efficiency. In this work, a customizable multifunctional three-dimensional (3D) electrode with bionic structures is proposed and precisely fabricated by the projection microstereolithography (PμSL) 3D printing technique, which facilitates the catalytic reaction and the detachment of H₂ bubbles with an asymmetrically wetted bioinspired functional membrane to allow bubbles to pass through based on Janus effects. The 3D bionic functional electrodes exhibit excellent H₂ production performance. At the same voltage, the current density of our 3D electrode is 2.5 times greater than that of a two-dimensional (2D) electrode and 8 times greater than that of a one-dimensional (1D) common flat electrode with the same surface area. Moreover, the amount of H₂ collected from a 3D bionic functional electrode is 53.9% and 172.1% greater than that collected from 2D and 1D electrodes with the same catalyst size, respectively. Significantly, a 400 cm² panel reactor system based on biomimetic 3D functional electrodes enables one-week continuous operation with ultra-high safety and durability in H₂ production. Coupled with a solar panel, it achieves long-term outdoor H₂ production and gas collection.

Bionic microfluidics is garnering increasing attention due to the superior fluidic performance enabled by biomimetic microstructures. Inspired by the unique structures of young pumpkin stems, we fabricate helicoidally patterned microchannels with precisely controlled morphologies using the projection micro-stereolithography (PμSL)-based 3D printing technique. Our helicoidally patterned microchannels achieve approximately twice the liquid lifting height compared to similarly sized smooth microchannels. This improvement is attributed to the enhanced capillary force. The additional meniscus formed between the helicoidally patterned microstructures significantly contributes to the increased capillary effects. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms of fluidic performance in helicoidally patterned microchannels are theorized using a newly developed equation, which is also employed to optimize the geometric parameters and fluidic performance of the biomimetic helicoidal microchannels. Additionally, our biomimetic helicoidally patterned microchannels facilitate a significant step-lifting phenomenon, mimicking tall trees’ transpiration. The fluidic performance of our biomimetic helicoidally patterned microchannels show promise for applications in enhanced liquid lifting, step-lifting, clean-water production, and others.