Re:New metal is so hydrophobic it makes water bounce like magic
by tomp on Thursday January 22, 2015 @04:43PM
(#8931940)
I'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!
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Re:New metal is so hydrophobic it makes water bounce like magic
by CocaKoala on Thursday January 22, 2015 @06:21PM
(#8932445)
Dust, 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.
Re:New metal is so hydrophobic it makes water bounce like magic
by msandford on Thursday January 22, 2015 @08:16PM
(#8932878)
Sure, 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.
Re:New metal is so hydrophobic it makes water bounce like magic
by thrownaway2424 on Thursday January 22, 2015 @08:51PM
(#8933015)
Or 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?
Re:New metal is so hydrophobic it makes water bounce like magic
by jjoonathan on Friday January 23, 2015 @12:09AM
(#8933503)
Glass windows regularly hold water at a 90˚ angle and against interstate-speed winds.