Scientists Invent Floatiest Material On Earth - [American Chemical Society]
Bugs that skate on water can do it because their feet are “superhydrophobic.” Chinese scientists applied a similar coating to a tiny copper mesh boat, and suddenly it could hold three times the weight.
It’s actually crazy: The superhydrophobic coating—what the scientists are casually calling “the cooperative effect of hierarchical micro/nanostructures and a low-surface-energy wax coating”—creates a cushion of air around the boat (or the bug’s leg), putting an invisible bubble between it and the water. The boat is literally floating on air, while the water tries to touch it but can’t. What’s creepy is that the coated boats sink immediately when immersed in organic liquids like ethanol and acetone.
Now that these scientists discovered ways to make super-buoyant objects, what can be done? They predict a new era of “novel superfloating and drag-reducing aquatic devices,” by which they mean, either cybernetic death from the sea, or the biggest, sleekest, craziest yacht you’ll ever only see pictures of because you won’t even know people who know people who will be able to afford it.
On the other hand we got the tree lovers: Just pop on a Dave Brubek fave
Cool stuff! I really like the turn tables. Wish I hadn’t liquidated my LP collection!
The nano stuff is interesting. I lived in Venice Italy for a few years. Venice was a medieval maritime power, “married” to the sea. Her pride was her fleet. Then the “New” World was discovered and trade shifted. When talking to Venetians I always told them I thought they should focus on designing solar/wind powered merchant vessels, so when the oil runs out (as it sooner or later will), they would have a big jump on global trade. Maybe this stuff will help. I’m forwarding the link to some engineer friends I have there…
on wikipedia i found information a while ago on the lotus effect [st similar], which led in turn to trying coal powder and hollow glass bubbles, trying to mimic that surface. no luck though.
What good is this? I mean, all of here know that in the future the ocean will be all organic material (oil, solvents, etc) and we’ll just sink like rocks.
told me of some experiments he did years ago with putting carbon graphite powder in his finsh coat and then buffing the surface to create a heavy static charge along the boundry layer which had a very short lived affect of repelling water molecules and making things “seem”, i repeat seem slippier. He said you can do it with a coating of titanium dioxide. But you have to rub it hard to induce the static charge.
personally i preferred crushed alkaseltzer in a hyper thinned resin layer sanded after you paddle out or waxing your bottom with a couple bars of irish spring soap. kind of pollutes the ocean though.
with ths tech you could use other materials or thinner surfaces and induce the a higher floatation quotient with such a coating.
The turntables look amazing and must have taken quite a bit of engineering and designing skill to work!?
If the organic materials inactivate the “floating particles”, I’m sure they’ll come up with a way of cancelling out this effect, by means of putting another microscopic layer in between the superhydrophobic coating and the water.
That’s interesting information, it would certainly open up a lot of new areas for surfing if we can reduce drag significantly.
Regarding the graphite, the static charge attracts water rather than repelling it, thus reducing the contact angle between the surfboard and the water.
Titanium is being used in a similar way to coat car windscreens, the charge is semi permanent and is caused by ultraviolet light.
Howzit oneula,Nano technology is still in it’s infancy stage but will be a big part of our future. I have done some reading up on it and the things that it will do are going to be amazing. Had not seen any thing like the application you referred to but just goes to show what it can do. I also like those turn tables and they are another example of a person thinking outside the box. Aloha,Kokua
Both the graphite paint and alka seltzer ideas have come around before. IIRC Tom Morey put them in Surfer Magazine around 1970.
Think of paddling near/upwind of a nano-mesh “floating” board a spritz a little something in the water… and watch 'em sink. glub glub I just sunk your tub. whatta hoot. I should live that long.
maybe those chemical society types are inhaling too much of the wrong chemicals before they write their press releases.
it’s simply amazing that a bazillion nano hairs on the pads of ones feet will allow some creaturesto climb walls and others to walk on water when they are coated will some type of biowax secretion. maybe these scientist are too brain dead to understand that acetone and those other organic solvents melt the wax coating allowing the air to escape and water to penetrate the hairs which in turn causes the sinking.
even a numbskull like me can understand how that works.
