BRENT: A team of American scientists from the University of Rochester, New York, have successfully developed a technique to transform metals into extremely water repellent, or “super-hydrophobic” materials.
The newly designed metal will have multiple applications like storing water in countries facing water scarcity, making airplane wings, solar panels and in places covered in ice to avoid rusting.
Scientists treated the metal with powerful laser beam to etch micro and nanoscale patterns on it which actually make this miracle happened. These metals include titanium, brass and platinum.
It almost takes an hour to treat a square inch of metal but has multiple advantages over Teflon coatings, which can wear away.
Dr. Chunlei Guo, a professor at the university’s Institute of Optics, says in a video “Our surface has many advantages over the coatings out there. First, our surface has a much stronger hydrophobic effect than the coatings, and secondly, we don’t have to worry about coatings peeling off and the surface degrading over time.”
Researchers are working to apply similar method on non-methods before commercializing the process.
