RepelWrap is a kind of plastic film that you can wrap around anything at all.

Once applied, the material does just what it says, and repels. RepelWrap repels water, blood, bacteria and pathogens, and potentially the virus that causes COVID-19.

Inspired by the water-repellent lotus leaf, the RepelWrap surface works through a combination of nano-scale surface engineering and chemistry.

The material is a bit like material you'd see around Coca Cola bottles, says Dr. Leyla Soleymani, one of its inventors, in this episode of Here's an Idea.

Textured with microscopic wrinkles that fend off all external molecules, the RepelWrap deflects, water, oil, blood, or most particles that hit the surface. 

Listen to this episode of Here's an Idea and see how RepelWrap — winner of this year's "Create the Future" Design Contest — began. And learn how they are testing RepelWrap on drug-resistant bacteria, from MRSA to coronaviruses.

Episode Highlights:

  • (3:09) Interview with Joe Pramberger, President of SAE Media Group (Producers of the "Create the Future" Design Contest) 
  • (9:50) Leyla Soleymani: What is RepelWrap?
  • (12:40) Leyla Soleymani: How Did the Idea Begin?
  • (13:49) Leyla Soleymani: How RepelWrap Was Tested Against a Variety of "Nasty Bugs"
  • (18:30) Leyla Soleymani: Who's Interested: Hospitals, Food Packagers, Couriers, and More
  • (20:08) Leyla Soleymani: What's Next? (RepelWrap in a Spray?)

Additional Resources

Read the research published in ACS Nano, which features many videos of RepelWrap in action.

McMaster University co-inventors Leyla Soleymani and Tohid Didar