Scientists have created an extraordinary scratch-proof, self-cleaning, glass coating.
The material could be used for a number of innovations, including eyeglasses that never get scratched and windows that never need to be cleaned, a Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard press release, reported.
The Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces (SLIPS) is the previously-engineered material that this new version is based off. The glass coating is even more durable, and transparent.
It was inspired by the walls of a "carnivorous pitcher plant" which traps insects with its super-slippery walls.
SLIPS is resistant to ice, sticky substances such as honey, and even bacteria.
"SLIPS repels both oily and aqueous liquids but it's expensive to make and not transparent," lead author Nicolas Vogel, a postdoctoral fellow of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, said.
SLIPS also must be secured to a surface in order to work.
"It would be easier to take the existing surface and treat it in a certain way to make it slippery," Vogel said.
The liquid version of SLIPS "allows liquids to flow easily over the surface, much as a thin layer of water in an ice rink helps an ice skater glide," the press release stated.
In order to create the material the researchers gathered tiny particles of polystyrene, a principle component of Styrofoam. They then pour liquid glass over the material until the balls of polystyrene are almost buried. After the glass dries they burn away the balls, leaving craters and a "honey-comb" appearance.
"The honeycomb structure is what confers the mechanical stability to the new coating," principal investigator Joanna Aizenberg, also of the Wyss Institute, said.
The resulting material is able to repel substances such as "water, octane, wine, olive oil and ketchup."
"We set ourselves a challenging goal: to design a versatile coating that's as good as SLIPS but much easier to apply, transparent, and much tougher -- and that is what we managed," Aizenberg said.
