Tag Archives: nanograss

Material that sheds like a snake when it’s damaged

Truly water-repellent materials are on the horizon. Or, they would be if one tiny problem was solved. According to a May  3, 2017 news item on ScienceDaily, scientists may have come up with that solution,

Imagine a raincoat that heals a scratch by shedding the part of the outer layer that’s damaged. To create such a material, scientists have turned to nature for inspiration. They report in ACS’ journal Langmuir a water-repellant material that molts like a snake’s skin when damaged to reveal another hydrophobic [water-repellent] layer beneath it.

A May 3, 2017 American Chemical Society (ACS) press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, expands on the theme,

Lotus leaves, water striders and other superhydrophobic examples from nature have inspired scientists to copy their water-repelling architecture to develop new materials. Such materials are often made by coating a substrate with nanostructures, which can be shored up by adding microstructures to the mix. Superhydrophobic surfaces could be useful in a range of applications including rain gear, medical instruments and self-cleaning car windows. But most of the prototypes so far haven’t been strong enough to stand up to damage by sharp objects. To address this shortcoming, Jürgen Rühe and colleagues again found a potential solution in nature — in snake and lizard skins.

The researchers stacked three layers to create their material: a water-repellant film made with poly-1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFA) “nanograss” on the top, a water-soluble polymer in the middle and a superhydrophobic silicon nanograss film on the bottom. Nanograss consists of tiny needle-like projections sticking straight up. The team scratched the coating and submerged the material in water, which then seeped into the cut and dissolved the polymer. The top layer then peeled off like molted skin and floated away, exposing the bottom, water-repellant film. Although further work is needed to strengthen the top coating so that a scratch won’t be able to penetrate all three layers, the researchers say it offers a new approach to creating self-cleaning and water-repellant materials.

The authors acknowledge support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and VDI/VDE/IT GmbH through project NanoTau.

Here’s a video demonstrating the concept,

Published on May 2, 2017

Scientists turn to snakes and lizards for inspiration to create a new material that sheds its outer layer when scratched.

Finally, a link to and a citation for the paper,

Molting Materials: Restoring Superhydrophobicity after Severe Damage via Snakeskin-like Shedding by Roland Hönes, Vitaliy Kondrashov, and Jürgen Rühe. Langmuir, Article ASAP DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b00814 Publication Date (Web): April 14, 2017

Copyright © 2017 American Chemical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.