One of the three methods included texturing the material to capture a layer of air against the surface, with the air pocket acting as a lubricant. Previous methods of making a solid surface slippery used one of three techniques. We’ve also articulated exactly how these SLIC surfaces can be designed, so that other researchers can expand what appears to be a very promising field. A lot of work needs to be done to fully understand the scope of potential applications.” We have some specific applications where we think this may be useful, but this is essentially an unexplored class of surfaces. Kota details, “ But we’ve now demonstrated a way to engineer the surface of materials that makes them both very slippery and hydrophilic, or SLIC, surfaces. This finding is counter-intuitive, since the longstanding view has been that slippery surfaces tend to be hydrophobic-they repel water.Īrun Kumar Kota, Study Corresponding Author and Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University The study outlined in this article contradicts current understandings of the formation of slippery materials and provides a new avenue of study for the field. Engineered surfaces can be both hydrophilic (meaning they have a strong affinity for water) and exceedingly slippery, according to scientists.
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