Spray-On Material to Revolutionize Water Proofing

Scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) have developed a new spray-on material with a remarkable ability to repel water. The new protective coating could eventually be used to waterproof mobile phones, prevent ice from forming on airplanes, or protect boat hulls from corroding. The team created a much more robust coating than previous materials by combining two plastics, one tough and one flexible. The coating is also transparent and extremely resistant to ultraviolet radiation.

Transcript

00:00:01 I'm William. I'm a PhD student at the Australian National University specialising in material science engineering. This discovery comprises of a super hydrophobic coating that is ultra robust. We can apply it to practically everything. So, you can have paper, cardboard, wood, claystone bricks, metals, plastics, windows, building materials of any sorts, marine application based materials, anything you can practically think of. In the market today there exists many super hydrophobic coatings. Most of them are susceptible to wear damages by virtue of breakage of its nano micro structures.

00:00:38 We have actually devised a technique here that retains this micro nano structures even after extensive wear damages. We've actually created a dual layer composite that comprises of a polymer that is interpenetrated within itself. So what do I mean by interpenetrated polymer networks? They actually represent two different polymers that are entangled together. So, you can imagine it represents two fishing nets that are actually interpenetrated and interweaved within one another when it's being synthesised, which gives it it's extreme robustness and strength.