Researchers at the University of Wollongong's Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials worked with researchers from China to create a new anti-fogging material designed after the eye of a green beetle fly.
The fly is capable of clearly seeing in moist environments without its eyes fogging up, according to Discovery News. Fogging takes place as a result of moisture drops bigger than 190 nanometers in diameter forming on surfaces. This process leads to light being scattered and the surface becoming harder to see through.
The researchers, led by Prof. Shi Xue Dou, discovered that condensation did not take place on the fly's eyes when it was in a humid environment with drops measuring less than 10 micrometers. Condensation only occurred on its body, ABC Science reported.
They looked further to find that its eyes were made up of thousands of repeating hexagonal units. Each unit had a diameter of 20 micrometers. These units were covered with many near-hexagonal protuberances that looked like bubbles and had diameters of close to 100 nanometers.
"We suspect that these well-ordered, close packed, hierarchical hexagonal structures are one of the origins of the superior superhydrophobicity and anti-fogging properties of the green bottle fly eyes," the researchers wrote.
The team put together tiny hexagonal structures with zinc particles to imitate the insect's eye, Discovery News reported. They then tested the material and found that, just like eyes of the fly, it was superhydrophobic. They said the material cannot get wet from water, which makes it possible to use the material for anti-fogging, self-cleaning, anti-freezing and anti-corrosive.
"This amazing superhydrophobic anti-fogging property is especially important in developing anti-freezing-fog materials for applications in some extreme and hazardous environments," the team wrote.
Analysts said the material could also be used as a transparent coating on car, building and airplane windows, ABC Science reported. They added that their chemical synthesis is more suitable for mass production than the system used to create older, bio-inspired, anti-fogging nanostructures.
The research was published in the journal Small.
