Glass is really a marvelous thing. It's tough, transparent and impermeable to air and water. It's also become an indispensable part of daily life across the globe.
Building A Better Coating
But glass also breaks easily and requires nearly constant cleaning. What if there were a type of glass that kept all of its good qualities but jettisoned the annoying stuff?
Thanks to a new coating developed by scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, glass may soon become stronger, self cleaning and slippery to the point of being able to repel even the stickiest of liquids.
The coating is based on a technology called Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS), which, in its turn, was inspired by the ultra-slippery leaves of carnivorous pitcher plants.
Transparent, Slick And Tough
The manufacturing process involves a honeycomb-like lattice upon which a liquid lubricant is poured. Because the honeycomb lattice doesn't reflect visible light, glass coated with the material can remain completely transparent.
How well does this slippery stuff work? So far in the lab it's proven more than able to repel not only water but also wine, olive oil and ketchup. It also greatly reduces icing, which could prove useful for things like airplane wings, power lines, cooling systems or even your car's windshield.
Plus, the slippery coating is tough. It's proven resistant to repeated touching, scratching, tape peeling and polishing.
Read More:
- New coating turns ordinary glass into super glass (EurekaAlert)
- What is glass? A million-dollar question (The University of Akron)
