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

self cleaning windows

[cat_jesus]

Forget the self cleaning shoe. This will be great for windows on skyscrapers.

Re:self cleaning windows

[Anonymous Coward]

It does exist and is avaliable: http://www.pilkington.co.uk/australasia/australia/ english/building+products/whats+new/news+items/pil kington+activ.htm L.

Re:self cleaning windows

[citizenkeller]

anybody else feels a bit strange at the thought of lotus technology applied to windows?

</silly mode>

Re:self cleaning windows

[randomErr]

Self-Cleaning Glass is already out. Pilkington has had it for about a year and a half.

This ActivGlass as it called does one better the this coating because not only does it repel water, it also uses sunlight to kernel up dirt so when that when it rains that dirt just runs off.

Self cleaning shoes?

[Sam the Nemesis]

For this thing to work as in lotus, shoes will need water droplets to be sprayed on them.

Aerosol spray, eh?

[RomikQ]

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!

Shoe polish

[NeoSkandranon]

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

Sweet

[Soporific]

I'll just be able to give myself a coating and not worry about bathing for a year.

~S

Re:Sweet

[NeoSkandranon]

You'd just have to run around naked in the rain to get it to work properly =p

Re:Sweet

[abhinavnath]

You'd just have to run around naked in the rain...

So take a shower, is that what you're saying? Dammit that doesn't help at all.

Accursed lameness filter.

Somebody call Fess Parker

[Anonymous Coward]

making its surfaces superhydrophobic.

Jim get the shotgun, the lotus has the hydrophoby!

Explanation

Not new

[DarkDust]

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 :-)

Uhhh, what about an Automobile...

[awfar]

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.

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.

Re:I wonder how long

[shaitand]

When are we going to realize that lab rats are cancer prone in general? I think lab rat, I think cancer on a stick.

Scientists Also Discovered ...

[LordYUK]

... 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.

The best application

[TiMac]

Coat waterslides in this stuff. Imagine screaming down a waterslide that has virtually no friction. WHEEEEEEEEE!

Is this really nanotech?

[henben]

I can remember when nanotech implied nano-scale machines. Surely a clever (but passive) new type of coating is materials science, or something?

I have a better solution

[DrSkwid]

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.

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