<p>Scientists have created the most non-stick surfaces yet, using microscopic liquid-repellent structures instead of plastic coatings like Teflon.<br /><br /></p>.<p>These new surfaces could help protect medical implants from gunk that can build up on and ruin the devices, endangering patients, showed research.<br /><br />Natural materials like insect wings and duck feathers are water-repellent or hydrophobic, whereas many others are oleophobic, meaning they repel oil.<br /><br />A number of materials, such as Teflon, are both hydrophobic and oleophobic, which degrade at high temperatures, which limits their use.<br /><br />Now, scientists have developed a way to render many different materials super-repellent to both water and oil without using coatings.<br /><br />"Usually artificial surfaces repel water because of the chemical composition of the material, but in our case, the repulsion is completely by mechanical means," said Chang-Jin Kim, study co-author and mechanical engineer at University of California, Los Angeles.<br /><br />Scientists have discovered that super-hydrophobic objects, such as lotus leaves, are often covered in microscopic bumps so that droplets float on top.<br /><br />"This could also have biomedical applications - you won't have unwanted substances building up on surfaces anymore in the body," Kim was quoted as telling Livescience.<br />The researchers started with silica and etched a "bed of nails" structure onto it, with each nail head measuring 20 microns wide, or about one-fifth the average width of a human hair.<br /><br />These newly developed surfaces repelled not just oil and water, but also fluorinated solvents, which are liquids with the lowest surface tension known.<br /><br />Without a plastic coating, the super-repellent silica could withstand temperatures more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.<br /><br />These super-repellent materials can last longer in outdoor environments and industrial settings than traditional super-repellent materials.<br /><br />The study appeared online in the journal Science.</p>
<p>Scientists have created the most non-stick surfaces yet, using microscopic liquid-repellent structures instead of plastic coatings like Teflon.<br /><br /></p>.<p>These new surfaces could help protect medical implants from gunk that can build up on and ruin the devices, endangering patients, showed research.<br /><br />Natural materials like insect wings and duck feathers are water-repellent or hydrophobic, whereas many others are oleophobic, meaning they repel oil.<br /><br />A number of materials, such as Teflon, are both hydrophobic and oleophobic, which degrade at high temperatures, which limits their use.<br /><br />Now, scientists have developed a way to render many different materials super-repellent to both water and oil without using coatings.<br /><br />"Usually artificial surfaces repel water because of the chemical composition of the material, but in our case, the repulsion is completely by mechanical means," said Chang-Jin Kim, study co-author and mechanical engineer at University of California, Los Angeles.<br /><br />Scientists have discovered that super-hydrophobic objects, such as lotus leaves, are often covered in microscopic bumps so that droplets float on top.<br /><br />"This could also have biomedical applications - you won't have unwanted substances building up on surfaces anymore in the body," Kim was quoted as telling Livescience.<br />The researchers started with silica and etched a "bed of nails" structure onto it, with each nail head measuring 20 microns wide, or about one-fifth the average width of a human hair.<br /><br />These newly developed surfaces repelled not just oil and water, but also fluorinated solvents, which are liquids with the lowest surface tension known.<br /><br />Without a plastic coating, the super-repellent silica could withstand temperatures more than 1,000 degrees Celsius.<br /><br />These super-repellent materials can last longer in outdoor environments and industrial settings than traditional super-repellent materials.<br /><br />The study appeared online in the journal Science.</p>