Researchers Create New Waterproof Surface Smashing Previous Theoretical Time Barrier [VIDEO]

A team of U.S. engineers have created the most water resistant material in which the droplets slide off more easily than other surfaces. The research has several applications ranging from aircraft wings to waterproof clothing.

In hydrophobic materials, there is a theoretical limit called contact time - the time taken by the water droplet to bounce off from the surface. But in this current study, the researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have devised a novel technique to break the estimated barrier and lowering the contact time by at least 40 percent.

The theoretical limit states that the minimum contact time of a bouncing droplet with the surface depends on the time period of oscillation within the vibrating drop (called as the Rayleigh time). Researchers believe that it is only by minimizing the interaction between the water and the surface that one can attain the minimum contact time.

"The time that the drop stays in contact with a surface is important because it controls the exchange of mass, momentum, and energy between the drop and the surface. If you can get the drops to bounce faster, that can have many advantages." Kripa Varanasi, the Doherty Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and co -author of the study, said in a statement.

In this study the researchers found that by increasing the surface interaction they can increase 'dryness' of the surface. For this interaction to happen they added ridges that will split the droplet and change its symmetry forcing it to recoil in irregular pattern that triggered shorter contact times, nearly 40 percent shorter that the control surface.

"We've demonstrated that we can use surface texture to reshape a drop as it recoils, in such a way that the overall contact time is significantly reduced," explained James Bird, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Boston University, the paper's lead author. "The upshot is that the surface stays drier longer if this contact time is reduced, which has the potential to be useful for a variety of applications."

The droplets failed to bounce on control surface as they immediately clung to the surface. By optimizing the texture the researchers hope to reduce the duration further by at least 70-80 percent.

The same effects was noticed in butterfly wings and nasturtium leaves where the drops bounce faster than they do on lotus leaves, which is considered as the 'gold standard' of non wetting surface.

Creation of such surface texture is easy and can be used on fabric surfaces as a strong replacement for the current waterproof coatings. Further, this novel technique can reduce corrosion on surfaces that come in contact with droplets.

The findings were documented in the journal Nature.