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Abstract Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging desalination technology that exploits phase change to separate water vapor from saline based on low-grade energy. As MD membranes come into contact with saline for days or weeks during desalination, membrane pores have to be sufficiently small (typically 11.5 bar) without compromising vapor transport. With large inner micro-porous structures, the nanofilament-coated membrane improves the distillation flux by up to 60% over the widely used commercially available membranes, while showing excellent salt rejection and operating stability. Our approach will allow the fabrication of high-performance composite membranes with multi-scale porous structures that have wide-ranging applications beyond desalination, such as in cleaning wastewater.

Abstract Liquid drops sliding on tilted surfaces is an everyday phenomenon and is important for many industrial applications. Still, it is impossible to predict the drop’s sliding velocity. To make a step forward in quantitative understanding, we measured the velocity $$(U)$$ ( U ) , contact width $$(w)$$ ( w ) , contact length $$(L)$$ ( L ) , advancing $$({\theta }_{{{{{{\rm{a}}}}}}})$$ ( θ a ) , and receding contact angle $$({\theta }_{{{{{{\rm{r}}}}}}})$$ ( θ r ) of liquid drops sliding down inclined flat surfaces made of different materials. We find the friction force acting on sliding drops of polar and non-polar liquids with viscosities ( $${\eta }$$ η ) ranging from 10−3 to 1 $${{{{{\rm{Pa}}}}}}\cdot {{{{{\rm{s}}}}}}$$ Pa ⋅ s can empirically be described by $${F}_{{{{{{\rm{f}}}}}}}(U)={F}_{0}+\beta w\eta U$$ F f ( U ) = F 0 + β w η U for a velocity range up to 0.7 ms−1. The dimensionless friction coefficient $$(\beta )$$ ( β ) defined here varies from 20 to 200. It is a material parameter, specific for a liquid/surface combination. While static wetting is fully described by $${\theta }_{{{{{{\rm{a}}}}}}}$$ θ a and $${\theta }_{{{{{{\rm{r}}}}}}}$$ θ r , for dynamic wetting the friction coefficient is additionally necessary.

Lithium metal penetration into solid-state electrolytes is a major drawback for developing all-solid-state batteries. Here, authors, via operando force microscopy, demonstrate that the trapping of electrons in garnet-type solid-state electrolyte grain boundaries is the origin of cell failure.

Wong et al. demonstrate the efficacy of super-amphiphobic surfaces for in situ defoaming and inhibition of foam growth while handling aqueous solutions. Without the use of chemical additives, their passive approach suggests a facile alternative route to froth management in industrial processes.

Mass fabrication of supraparticles is essential for their applications, but it is not easy. Tan et al. produce porous supraparticles with tunable shapes by drying colloidal particles in water-ethanol-oil ternary drops, where the pining effect at drop edges is alleviated by the formation of oil rings.

While nanocarrier-based drug delivery is a promising therapeutic approach, in situ characterization of drug nanocarriers in blood remains difficult. Here, the authors demonstrate how the fluorescence correlation spectroscopy can be used to directly characterize drug nanocarriers in flowing blood.

Configuring surfaces on-demand for desired functionalities is an ongoing challenge. Here, diverse and tailorable modifications of quartz and porous silica surfaces that are rapidly and reversibly switchable by the use of visible light are achieved via ruthenium-thioether coordination.

Drops of liquid on a hot surface can exhibit fascinating behaviour such as the Leidenfrost effect in which drops hover on a vapour layer. Here Pham et al. show that when hydrogel drops are placed on a rapidly heated plate they bounce to increasing heights even if they were initially at rest.