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How hard is it to make artificial hydrophobic material? Wouldn't they make great windshields?
by kamalkr 12y ago
How hard is it to make artificial hydrophobic material? Wouldn't they make great windshields?
- CapitalistCartr 12y agoYou can buy Rain-X and the like at auto parts stores.
- yellowapple 12y agoPlus there's that NeverWet stuff Rustoleum sells now; according to their marketing materials, it actually qualifies as superhydrophobic (i.e. in the same ballpark as the article's leaf): http://www.neverwet.com/product-characteristics.php http://www.neverwet.com/product-characteristics.php
- joezydeco 12y agoThere's stronger stuff, like Diamon-Fusion, but they all wear away with use.
- serf 12y agothat seems as if it'd be true for any surface that makes use of the three dimensional shape/properties of the surface.
- devindotcom 12y agoThey're making it (I linked above) but my guess is that they're still pretty fragile. The microstructures and nanostructures that minimize contact surface area can be flattened or broken super easily and then your perfect phobic material becomes partially porous. So I would say it's not hard to make them, but it's hard to make them robust.
- tempestn 12y agoAnd a windshield would be a very difficult place for them, since it's getting continuously blasted by air and grit as you drive.
- Karellen 12y agoPah. We've already solved the windshield problem, if crudely. Think bigger, and also smaller. What about glasses/goggles, which are too small for wipers? What about artificial heart parts, which have problems with blood clotting, presumably because it sticks to the surfaces and stops moving. If we could coat the parts we implant with this stuff, would it prevent blood clots? Boat hulls. Skis/snowboards. Pipes/drains in hard water areas - if the water doesn't stick around, it won't evaporate to leave limescale behind.