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New metal is so hydrophobic it makes water bounce like magic
- jthurman 12y agoHow vulnerable would this nanoscale etching be to damage? Would a scratch or abrasion ruin its hydrophobic properties?
- tomp 12y agoI've been wondering the same thing... Besides, there are other differences between lab environment and the "real world" - actual water is full of impurities (e.g. limescale, urea in pee, mud, salt, acid rain, ...), I wonder if the material retains its hydrophobic properties. The other thing that worries me probably even more than "wear-and-tear" (i.e. scratches, abrasion, ...) is dust - once dust covers the fine nano-structure, water will once again stick to it, and it might well be impossible to clean!
- CocaKoala 12y agoDust, at least, is not an issue like you suspect. The researchers who developed this technique took the dust from a vacuum cleaner and dumped it on a treated piece of metal; water picks up the dust and then slides right off, so the surface is actually incredibly easy to clean.
- msandford 12y agoSure, but if you dump something on it which has a grain size that's similar to the voids in the material, all bets are off. If the average void is 1um and you put 0.1um dust all over it, I would suspect that it would embed itself in there pretty nicely.
- thrownaway2424 12y agoOr a liquid that's not repelled by the surface. What would happen if you just dumped a lot of washing up liquid on this nanosurface? How would you rinse it off? Watching the video I thought the thing with the teflon was a bit silly. After all if you wanted to think of something that won't hold water at an angle, wouldn't you think of ordinary glass rather than teflon?
- jjoonathan 12y agoGlass windows regularly hold water at a 90˚ angle and against interstate-speed winds.
- durkie 12y agoAlmost certainly. I would also expect contamination (finger oils, for example) to be a big issue. (Source: I worked on and designed equipment for commercial scale-up of a nanoscale superhydrophobic coating process)
- toomuchtodo 12y agoWould not water (or any other solvent's) movement cause a scouring action that would remove contaminates and keep the surface clean?
- darkmighty 12y agoDepends on the behavior with oils I guess. Water doesn't dissolve oil, although it could help mechanically remove it -- but if the material is actually olephilic or neutral it could be an issue.
- zenocon 12y agoI was wondering what would happen if you turned on a firehose and just slammed it for a good length of time...how durable it would be? If they're planning to use it on the surface of an airplane wing -- curious how durable the surface is.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoI was actually thinking about using this on the surface of titanium on a catamaran.
- inthewoods 12y agoI just love that this website happens to have someone in this field to help us all understand this. Thank you for your comment!
- ctdonath 12y agoDurability? reaction to other biological substances? I'm thinking of artificial heart valves and the necessity of preventing anything sticking for upwards of 50 years of continuous use.
- baddox 12y agoRegarding durability, the article says > Instead of using chemical coatings they used lasers to etch a nanostructure on the metal itself. It will not wear off, like current less effective methods.
- toomuchtodo 12y agoGoodbye Teflon!
- biot 12y agoThis is blogspam. Original source was discussed here yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8921655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8921655
- dang 12y agoThanks, we missed that one. Had the story not been discussed yesterday we would swap the url, but in this case we'll bury the post as a duplicate.
- nhayden 12y agoBetter, non-gizmodo link: http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/superhydrophobic-metals-85592/ http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/superhydrophobic-metals-...
- RachelF 12y agoHere is what the actual pattern on the platinum looks like: http://scitation.aip.org/docserver/fulltext/aip/journal/jap/117/3/1.4905616.figures.online.f1.gif http://scitation.aip.org/docserver/fulltext/aip/journal/jap/...
- tormeh 12y agoAbout the plane wing applications... Wouldn't these micropatterns also have some kind of impact on aerodynamics? Not saying it's even a negative thing, but more research seems to be needed.
- Jailbird 12y agoSince reading Dune, I have been waiting for mankind to get around to making this. It was just a matter of time.
- silvio 12y agoThis will work really well. Some leaves use this same mechanism to 'self-clean', which means that now we will have the ability to add the 'lotus effect' to man-made objects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHcd_4ftsNY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHcd_4ftsNY
- s0rce 12y agoWorst title ever, this is not a new metal any more than printed paper is new paper.
- joegosse 12y agoFrom the paper http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/117/3/10.1063/1.4905616 http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/117/3/10.10... it appears they have modeled the pattern after the lotus leaf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_effect
- smallegan 12y agoMaking a hydrophobic urinal seems like an interesting prank.
- jjoonathan 12y agoOn the 2nd floor of Wean Hall at CMU somebody has sprayed a small patch of hydrophobic coating on one of the urinals (I think it's the 2nd floor, but definitely it's floor 2, 4, or 5). The stream normally turns into a "sheet" falling down the back of the porcelain, except around the patch -- where it hops off and turns into a thousand little droplets that bounce merrily down to the drain. Unless the person who put it there keeps re-applying it, the coating has had an impressive lifespan (at least 1 year in a semi-public toilet). Anyway, if you happen to be in the area (and male) you can try it yourself.
- mhb 12y agothe coating has had an impressive lifespan Probably isn't handled too much though.