Superhydrophobic Spray – Make Anything You Want Super Waterproof

I really do mean anything; you could make your clothes, iPads, cell phones and laptops superhydrophobic. This usually refers when making something super waterproof resistant. I am not saying like raincoat waterproof, no it is a material that not only repels water but is so waterproof that water bounces off. In this case, I am talking about NeverWet’s superhydrophobic spray on coating. The product won the gold medal in science and the Grand Prix Award at the INPEX 2011, an invention exposition where thousands of new products are showcased.

Hydrophic surfaces can be defined as anything that repels

water, but what separate the different degrees are the contact angles. The contact angles are the angles that are formed from the surface to the outside edge of the water droplet. To get an idea of what this may look like, a freshly waxed car will make a 90 degree – anything over 90 degrees may be considered hydrophobic – contact angle with water droplets, and water droplets on your table top will have a relatively small and <90 degree contact angle. However, a super hydrophobic surface must have a contact angle higher than 150 degrees. NeverWet’s super hydrophobic spray on coating is capable of a contact angle between 160 ~ 175 degrees, such water droplets will not squish onto surfaces but instead will form round balls. To get a visual representation of this imagine a ping pong ball on your desk, that nearly forms a 180 degree angle, so perhaps now you could imagine what this nano-coating is capable of.

Now all this science sounds interesting enough but what is it capable of and what is its practical value. Because of its high super hydrophobic properties they can not only repel water, but all liquids. May that be orange juice, to milk, to oil and to even chocolate syrup! Because it is a spraying product, it can be applied on just about anything. An application for clothing

may make your shoes and shirts utterly waterproof, such that if you’d like you could go to a waterpark in a suit and tie, and perhaps that top-hat. It can protect your shoes and clothes from condiment stains, so no more worrying about getting a ketchup stain on your favorite shirt. Perhaps make your expensive (or just your normal) shoes mud proof, and protect it from getting dirty.

You may also spray your cell phones and laptop such that you could now safely bring them to a pool area without the fear of water shorting them out, I still wouldn’t bring it into the pool though. The coating is so powerful they can create a water repelling shield around laptops, iPads, iPhones, cell phones and among many other electronics, such that they could still operate while submerged underwater. But again, I still wouldn’t advice this, but it can make them waterproof.

This is but only the beginning, for those were just some of the domestic uses, coatings like these have a plethora of other uses. For example, they can prevent icing on transformers. They can also fight bacterial in your washrooms, if applied – it has been done at this point commercially – on a toilet plunger, then after use water will not stick onto the plunger and therefore making the growth of bacteria much more difficult. The potential of this product limited only by your mind.
 

Sources Cited
"Superhydrophobe." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhydrophobe>.
"NeverWetâ?¢ Coatings Are Superhydrophobic Surfaces." Hydrophobic Surfaces Coating. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.neverwet.com/product-characteristics.php>.
"Contact Angle." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Sept. 2012. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_angle>.