Slashdot Mirror
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."
Just what we need, putting more people out of work by making them redundant. tsk.
---
When I grow up, I want to be a kid again.
Forget the self cleaning shoe. This will be great for windows on skyscrapers.
Though I guess we'd have to spray them every once in a while..
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
For this thing to work as in lotus, shoes will need water droplets to be sprayed on them.
And what if you got some of the spray onto your socks while applying it to your shoes... I can see it now - forever stinking, laundry-resistant... oh the horror!
Join the elite! Post at score:2! Ghostwheel is online.
If this becomes a reality, expect to see it in Kiwi shoe polish. Thousands of ROTC students and millions of military personnel would be a pretty good market for Kiwi Black Self-cleaning(TM) ...dunno how you'd buff it though, considering it repels water so violently
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
I'll just be able to give myself a coating and not worry about bathing for a year.
~S
What can they do for all these dang fingerprints on my monitor?
making its surfaces superhydrophobic.
Jim get the shotgun, the lotus has the hydrophoby!
Explanation
This is Lotus effect is actually known for some time now. I saw an article about it and the (already successful) attempts to mimic this well over a year ago. My girlfried, who is varnisher, said there is already varnish avaible with such an effect but it's way too expensive to paint a car with it. And AFAIK there is already keramics avaible with this effect, being very expensive, too. But as always, prices should drop once going into mass-production :-)
On my glasses! No more waiting till I can hardly see through them before I wipe them off and think "Jeez, I really should clean these more often!"
remember this?
Colonel Homer's outfit when he became Lurlene Lumpkin's manager..
"Now this is made from a space-age fabric especially designed for Elvis. Sweat actually cleans this suit!"
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
where massive amounts of fresh water are wasted every day to wash them (not to mention the long lines on Saturday mornings). And, this hydrophobic nature would make the body last even longer even here in Michigan(!). Or, a boat that doesn't soil so there is no need to pollute the lakes and streams with cleaners. Or, durable items that look as good as new for twice as long, reducing the human (or American) need to replace items with new looking appliances...
This is a great innovation.
it will be until we discover that all this nanotech casuses cancer.
Releasing a bunch of human engineered particles into the environment where they will be easily sucked into the lungs should be monitored closely.
Silicosis, Asbestosis...
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:
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.
i thought they had this sort of coating on expensive ovens.
Remember the stain-resistant Dockers?
Water rolls right off them!
Stain Defender
... that if you turn the lotus sideways, it produces 3 resources, or "mana" if you will, before burying itself at the end of the round.
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
Self Cleaning Pants. It's about to be the year 2003, and we're starting to have the technology for the ultimate pants. I'm talking about the kind of pants that Sci-Fi authors of old dreamed of. We have the Dockers with extra pockets for our gadgets, and the Levis with radiation sheilding. And now with this substance we will be able to make The Ultimate Pants! I see a utopia in our near future where the free people of Earth are released from the slavery of washing their gadget toting pants. Oh the luxury!
Coat waterslides in this stuff. Imagine screaming down a waterslide that has virtually no friction. WHEEEEEEEEE!
The couch (big flat rocks with lumbar support)
Fast food (grubs)
Pamela Anderson (Grand Tetons)
The Rolling Stones (dinosaur fossils)
Windows (swarms of locusts)
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
Self Cleaning Geeks!
You feel sleepy. Close your eyes. The opinions stated above are yours. You cannot imagine why you ever felt otherwise.
I can remember when nanotech implied nano-scale machines. Surely a clever (but passive) new type of coating is materials science, or something?
Finally, I'll no longer have to waste hours and hours each day cleaning my shoes!
$8.95/mo web hosting
I've hear that American's have the richest piss out of any country. (We have the most protein, vitamins, minerals etc.)
Damn it's good to be an American. A Somolian could probably live off my piss.
Americans aren't Human too?
/. of these sorts of things always makes life easier.
I thought so, but confirmation on
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Forgett about self-cleaning shoes. I think the major application will be self-cleaning cars and buildings. Imagine how much water will be saved by this!
...we don't make a lot of the nanotech you buy, we make a lot of the nanotech you buy, deadlier.
Hi! IIRC the principle of the so-called Lotus Effect was originally found by Prof. Dr. Barthlott of the University of Bonn. http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/system/bionik_flash .html
btw, the application of such a finish to glass would result in a certain matteness because of the nanostructure, so this might not be the solution to get self-cleaning glasses.
greetings,
Harleqin
well, not chicken eggs anyway.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
get those pants on or it's off to chokey
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I don't clean my car, haven't done for 2 years or so and my car is white.
The dirt seems to reach equilibrium.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I want the self cleaning car! ever since the gas station I frequent broke its car wash (8 months ago) Ive yet to get it washed...
*bad owner, BAD!*
The Code Ninja is swift with his tool, precise in his delivery, and deadly accurate in his execution.
on my car after those little bastards hit it with an egg!
Anyone know what they are using to make this waterphobic? Are they using wax? Anyone know if what they are using is oilphobic too?
So the first time I go to run across a wet street, I get to head-plant in front of hundreds of people!
But at least the soles of my shoes will be clean!
Note: I am refraining from the mom-checking-for-clean-underwear jokes.
blog |
Hasn't anyone rad "The Mote In God's Eye" by Pournelle? Didn't the moties 'fix" the toilets with effect thus reducing the need for water to flush. Self flushing toilet bowls? Now that is beneficial!!
.. in my youth? It would have eliminated the revolting "Stinky Dink" I woke up with too many times.
Trolling is a art,
Nope. But can the plant file suit for prior art? Maybe IBM will! Has anybody filed a patent on zebra stripes as a method of visual obfuscation yet?
"I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating. And in fourteen days, I had lost exactly two weeks. Joe E. Lewis
You need self cleaning glass? Look here.
You need a self cleaning toilet? Look here.
I'm sure that there will be many more examples of this great technology in the next months.
Bye egghat.
-- "As a human being I claim the right to be widely inconsistent", John Peel
Additionally, you noone should hope for lotus-effect-coated cars too soon. The automobile industry has been searching for "anything-repelling" coatings for ages now and one of the counterparts (apart from car washers losing their jobs) is that you simply cannot coat repelling coatings, so if you have to repair the coating after an accident, this simply won't work (or will be very expensive). There will certainly be a use for this technique, but it'll probably not be as obvious as most people think.
You mean it's got rabies?
"More organs means more human." - Zim
I've seen roof-tiles with the lotus effect advertised here in Germany. Not that having a clean roof is a major priority for most of us - perhaps they're just easier to make?
Did a little search and here's some information from the Fraunhofer institute about their research (no, they don't _just_ make MP3 codecs).
They also link to this page which is a federally funded research project who are looking at applying microstructures onto large surfaces...
Forget shoes, windows, and cars. Think people! Just spray it all over your body and you'll never need to shower again, just run through a lake, or if you do decide to shower now soap is necessary? All the filth just rolls off your body. :)
Will Stokes Album Shaper http://albumshaper.sf.net
... transparency and stability on smooth surfaces, this could be even better than the RainX-type coatings on windshields (which are already great), and could work well on the rest of the car as well.
I wonder if it sheds water fast enough to prevent icing on airplane wings.
In any case, this seems like a good example of BASF's advertisement tag line: 'we don't make the things you buy, we make the things you buy better'.
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
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
"However, Soane had a test garment on hand, a men's shirt, made with fabric from the nanotechnology process. He gleefully poured water and coffee on it and the liquids ran off (onto Burlington's boardroom table) without being absorbed by the fabric. But he noted that pressure would cause the liquid to pan through the fabric." New Century News article
In the distance you hear an ominous moo.
instead of using a waxy substance, use carbon or a stronger material and coat tires
it could grab asphalt at the molecular level
imagine the friction on those babies
The reduced contact area should prevent a gecko from gripping the petals. Now we can get rid of that little basterd from the Geico commercials.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
those new shirts and pants that repel water-based liquids. They use a similar idea, add a bunch of hydrophobic polymers to the surface of a fabric in such a surface density that water cannot penetrate the fabric. However, this only applies to water-based liquids (i.e. wine, juices, etc..) Check it out, there's an article at Business 2.0.
wouldnt this make the shoes you apply this to rather slippery and dangerous?
This reminds me of the time I decided to pledge my hardwood floor. A friend came over right as I finished and said "Wow - your floor looks greaaaaaahhHH!!" thump. Oops!
Scotchgard?
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
The best application for the new technology is probably Grafitti.
That way, when you tag something, you can spray this on top of it, and they will never be able to paint over your grafitti.
-- Terry
I thought there was _another_ version of Notes coming out!
This
Did anyone else think of Lotus 1-2-3 when they read the "Lotus Nanotech" headline?
The lotus plant is a metaphor in some buddhist schools of thought. "The most beautiful lotus plant grows from the muddiest swamp" - meaning that if you go through loads of problems and shit in your life, you will become the best person possible.
If that means as a buddhist I have nanotech (albeit patented! - oi! shakyamuni should claim prior art!) shit repelling skin, all the better!
Ale
You shit your pants.
?-|||-----x<*))))><