

New metal is so hydrophobic it makes water bounce off of it - dpods13
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/new-amazing-metal-is-so-hydrophobic-it-makes-water-boun-1680799039

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adwn
That's amazing! Two questions, though:

1) Can you varnish the area, or will my car/airplane wing need a bare metal
surface?

2) What about abrasion? Will, e.g., cutlery damage the non-stickyness of the
pan?

~~~
dalke
It would need a bare surface. The actual paper, at
[http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/117/3/10.10...](http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/117/3/10.1063/1.4905616)
, says:

> Metals are intrinsically hydrophilic; immediately after femtosecond laser
> surface structuring, they first become more hydrophilic, but the exposure to
> air turns the metals superhydrophobic. This transition is explained by
> chemical interaction between the surface and the ambient CO 2, resulting in
> an accumulation of carbon and its compounds on the laser-treated surface.
> [14,28] We believe that the laser-induced surface nanostructures also play
> an important role in enhancing this chemical interaction due to nanochemical
> effects.

so it would seem that the water needs to be in contact with this specific
surface.

Neither the paper nor the press release at
[http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/superhydrophobic-
metals-...](http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/superhydrophobic-
metals-85592/) mentions how well it stands up to abrasion. However, the depth
is only 75 μm, so I wouldn't take steel wool to it.

FWIW, "It currently takes an hour to pattern a 1 inch by 1 inch metal sample"
so that airplane wing will take a while to pattern.

P.S. More discussion at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8921655](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8921655)
.

