Nanocoating Waterproofs Any Gadget
An anonymous reader writes "Water has always been the bane of electronics, however American company Liquipel just announced that they have developed a way to completely waterproof any device against the elements. Using a revolutionary process, Liquipel applies a hydrophobic nanocoating to phones, computers, and other devices that completely waterproofs them and protects them against accidental exposure to liquids."
At one point we’ve all done it – spilt a drink over a laptop, gotten our tablets soaked in the rain, or even dropped our phone in the toilet.
I've never done any of those things with my expensive tools/toys. It baffles me how badly people treat expensive and hard to replace tools. It's not limited to technology either; a friend of mine has a collection of rusted saws, screwdrivers and other tools because he's too lazy to bring them in out of the rain after a big home improvement project. Pathetic.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
It is no doubt that nanocoatings are going mainstream what with the latest solar paint that can harness the sun http://www.infobarrel.com/Solar_Nanopaint_-_Paint_With_Quantum_Dot_Solar_Cells and coatings for jets and other aircraft to provide excellent aerodynamic properties. Then you have nanocoatings for engines and http://againsttheodds.hubpages.com/hub/Nanodiamond-Lubricants-And-Lubrication-Particles and countless other applications on the horizon. It is an exciting time and there is still plenty of room at the bottom.
Pure water is actually a reasonable insulator. You can generally immerse electronics in pure water, then dry it off and it will work, if it stopped working at all. I'll bet all their amazing immersion demos are being done with deionised water
Water with ions in it, such as from salt or contamination, is conductive and will corrode. I'd like to see them dunk a "waterproofed" phone into seawater.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if the coating was applied to a boat. Would the boat be fouling proof? Also, would it go even faster because it's coated in a hydrophobic substance? Hmmmm...The geek in me wants to get a toy boat, test its performance, then have them coat it then test it again and see if the performance improves by a measurable amount.