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How vulnerable would this nanoscale etching be to damage? Would a scratch or abrasion ruin its hydrophobic properties?
by jthurman 12y ago
How 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!