Lotus Nanotech

Makarand writes "The lotus, a flowering plant native to Asia whose waxy leaves repel water droplets and particles of dirt, is teaching nanotechnologists a thing or two. Scientists at BASF have found that the lotus plant surfaces have a coating of wax crystals around 1 nm in diameter. This roughness on the nanometer scale helps the plant surface to reduce the actual contact area to 2-3% of the droplet covered area making its surfaces superhydrophobic. If the surface is slanting, the droplet rolls off, instead of sliding off, picking up small particles of dirt on the way giving a "self-cleaning" effect. BASF is now working on an aerosol spray to coat a surface with such a self-cleaning nanostructure. The self cleaning shoe might soon be a reality."

Comments

Nature

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people wonder why we should bother about the environment and saving plants and animals: this is why. All our great ideas come from Nature. 4+ billions years has have gone into "designing" the various flora/fona alive now and it would be extremely dumb to waste all the R and D.

Some other things ideas from nature:

• the airplane wing
• sonar
• radar (bats) (okay, similiar to sonar)
• several plants have been use for medicines

There's also research being done in using some kinds of spider silk to replace steels cables: three times stronger and about half the weight. I wonder what things we'll never discover because the plant/animal species has gone extinct.

But how long does it last?

[Thag]

I mean, if the crystals are that small, how long before they erode away?

On the lotus plant, I would imagine that the crystals are continually being replenished, and even then how long does the blossom last?

Jon Acheson