Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > With a jolt, 'nanonails' go from repellant to wettable

Silicon "nanonails" created by Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor of University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Mechanical Engineering, form the basis of a novel surface that repels virtually all liquids, including water, solvents, detergents and oils. When electrical current is applied, the liquids slip past the nail heads and between the shanks of the nails and wet the entire surface. The surface may have applications in biomedical devices such as "labs-on-a-chip" and in extending the life of batteries.
Photo by: courtesy Tom Krupenkin
Silicon "nanonails" created by Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor of University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Mechanical Engineering, form the basis of a novel surface that repels virtually all liquids, including water, solvents, detergents and oils. When electrical current is applied, the liquids slip past the nail heads and between the shanks of the nails and wet the entire surface. The surface may have applications in biomedical devices such as "labs-on-a-chip" and in extending the life of batteries.
Photo by: courtesy Tom Krupenkin

Abstract:
Sculpting a surface composed of tightly packed nanostructures that resemble tiny nails, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and their colleagues from Bell Laboratories have created a material that can repel almost any liquid.

With a jolt, 'nanonails' go from repellant to wettable

Madison, WI | Posted on January 30th, 2008

Add a jolt of electricity, and the liquid on the surface slips past the heads of the nanonails and spreads out between their shanks, wetting the surface completely.

The new material, which was reported this month in Langmuir, a journal of the American Chemical Society, could find use in biomedical applications such as "lab-on-a- chip" technology, the manufacture of self-cleaning surfaces, and could help extend the working life of batteries as a way to turn them off when not in use.

UW-Madison mechanical engineers Tom Krupenkin and J. Ashley Taylor and their team etched a silicon wafer to create a forest of conductive silicon shanks and non-conducting silicon oxide heads. Intriguingly, the ability of the surface of the structure to repel water, oil, and solvents rests on the nanonail geometry.

"It turns out that what's important is not the chemistry of the surface, but the topography of the surface," Krupenkin explains, noting that the overhang of the nail head is what gives his novel surface its dual personality.

A surface of posts, he notes, creates a platform so rough at the nanoscale that "liquid only touches the surface at the extreme ends of the posts. It's almost like sitting on a layer of air."

####

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
Tom Krupenkin
(608) 890-1948

Copyright © University of Wisconsin-Madison

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related News Press

News and information

Flexible electronics integrated with paper-thin structure for use in space January 17th, 2025

‘Brand new physics’ for next generation spintronics: Physicists discover a unique quantum behavior that offers a new way to manipulate electron-spin and magnetization to push forward cutting-edge spintronic technologies, like computing that mimics the human brain January 17th, 2025

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

Discoveries

Autonomous AI assistant to build nanostructures: An interdisciplinary research group at TU Graz is working on constructing logic circuits through the targeted arrangement of individual molecules: Artificial intelligence should speed up the process enormously January 17th, 2025

‘Brand new physics’ for next generation spintronics: Physicists discover a unique quantum behavior that offers a new way to manipulate electron-spin and magnetization to push forward cutting-edge spintronic technologies, like computing that mimics the human brain January 17th, 2025

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

Announcements

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

The National Space Society Congratulates SpaceX on Starship’s 7th Test Flight: Latest Test of the Megarocket Hoped to Demonstrate a Number of New Technologies and Systems January 17th, 2025

The National Space Society Congratulates Blue Origin on the Inaugural Flight of New Glenn: The Heavy Lift Reusable Rocket Will Open New Frontiers and Provide Healthy Competition January 17th, 2025

Battery Technology/Capacitors/Generators/Piezoelectrics/Thermoelectrics/Energy storage

Enhancing transverse thermoelectric conversion performance in magnetic materials with tilted structural design: A new approach to developing practical thermoelectric technologies December 13th, 2024

Breakthrough brings body-heat powered wearable devices closer to reality December 13th, 2024

Giving batteries a longer life with the Advanced Photon Source: New research uncovers a hydrogen-centered mechanism that triggers degradation in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles September 13th, 2024

What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project