Take a rag of shrinkable plastic , like the material you obtain inShrinky Dinks . Add a dash of of Teflon and — voila!—you have an incredibly simple-minded new variety of superhyrdrophboc material .
That ’s pretty much what a team of researchers make the the University of Sydney has done . The squad had been play shrinkable plastics — just like the ones you feel in kids slyness kit Shrinky Dinks — to make new form of gilt film . But they also resolve to see what would pass if they stick Teflon onto the airfoil .
So they did . And after layering the slippery material onto the open and heating it , they discovered that they ’d create a crinkled surface where piss rolled straight off , with a tangency angle of an impressive 172 grade . That means the piss barely even touches the surface , instead rolling off like a testicle down a slope . The enquiry ispublished in Applied Interfaces and Materials .

That ’s perhaps not that telling by itself , because there are many superhydrophobic materials in the mankind by this point . But the team has discovered that it ’s also incredibly durable , too . A 10 - nanometer - thick level of Teflon on a polyolefin sheet was find to have the same lucre electrical resistance as an aluminum coat would . And even when it was scratch , it still happily molt the water .
Because the material is inherently comfortable to make conform to objects — this is , after all , fundamentally shrink - wrapping credit card — it could be used to provide a weewee - spill open to anything , from cars to bags .
[ Applied Interfaces and MaterialsviaChemical & Engineering News ]

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