Nature has a habit of providing us with elegant solution to some of our problem . Inspired by the eye of the common fleeceable bottle fly , researcher from the University of Woolongong ’s Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials and colleague have develop asuperhydrophobic materialthat they believe could have legion diligence in industry . The study has been published inSmall .
Hydrophobic substances or material are those that repel weewee . When water supply comes into contact with a hydrophobic surface it is more attracted to itself than the material and consequently forms niggling beads . Superhydrophobicsurfaces are just extreme forms of these , and are very difficult to make wet . To besuperhydrophobic , the material has to be very rough and have a small surface energy .
Superhydrophobic surfaces have a divers range of mountains ofapplicationsin diligence . They can be used in habiliment and footgear such as boots and jackets to protect them and make them waterproof . They can be applied to underwater vessels such as bomber to thin drag , or boats to prevent fouling and protect against the growth of marine organisms . They could also be used in electronics to forbid corrosion . The list goes on- they ’re handy material .
Last week we see a report fromBrigham vernal Universitydescribing novel superhydrophobic surfaces that were bring on by etching microscopic spot or ridge onto surfaces . This fussy study , however , used a slightly differentapproach . The team examined the surface of the coarse green bottle fly ball ’s eye through microscopy and found that it was coated with petite hexagonal social structure . Further investigation found that each unit was in fact covered with even lowly hexagons . When the team place these tent-fly in moist environment , they found that their eyes remained spare from water .
The researchers then repair these surfaces using atomic number 30 nanoparticles and when they put their material to the trial they found that it was just as aquaphobic as the center . Although a similar approach has been adopted before , albeit using mosquito eye for intake , the open proved difficult to produce on a larger scale . The squad hop that they can apply this Modern cloth on a wide range of surfaces and will carry out further tests to investigate whether it is suitable for certain industrial applications .
