Home > Press > Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface
Abstract:
The brilliant blue wings of the mountain swallowtail (Papilio ulysses) easily shed water because of the way ultra-tiny structures in the butterfly's wings trap air and create a cushion between water and wing.
Human engineers would like to create similarly water repellent surfaces, but past attempts at artificial air traps tended to lose their contents over time due to external perturbations. Now an international team of researchers from Sweden, the United States, and Korea has taken advantage of what might normally be considered defects in the nanomanufacturing process to create a multilayered silicon structure that traps air and holds it for longer than one year.
The researchers used an etching process to carve out micro-scale pores and sculpt tiny cones from the silicon. The team found that features of the resulting structure that might usually be considered defects, such as undercuts beneath the etching mask and scalloped surfaces, actually improved the water repellent properties of the silicon by creating a multilayered hierarchy of air traps. The intricate structure of pores, cones, bumps, and grooves also succeeded in trapping light, almost perfectly absorbing wavelengths just above the visible range.
The biologically inspired surface, described in the AIP's journal Applied Physics Letters, could find uses in electro-optical devices, infrared imaging detectors, or chemical sensors.
Article: "Multifunctional silicon inspired by wing of male Papilio ulysses" is accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters.
Authors: Sang H. Yun(1), Hyung-Seok Lee (2), Young Ha Kwon, (3) Mats Göthelid(1), Sang Mo Koo (4), Lars Wagberg (5), Ulf O. Karlsson (1), and Jan Linnros (1).
(1) Materials Physics, Royal Institute of Technology, Kista, Sweden
(2) Microsystems Technology Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
(3) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Suwon, Republic of Korea
(4) Department of Electronic Materials, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
(5) Fibre and Polymer Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Catherine Meyers
301-209-3088
Copyright © American Institute of Physics
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.
Related News Press |
Physics
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
Chemical reactions can scramble quantum information as well as black holes April 5th, 2024
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024
'Sudden death' of quantum fluctuations defies current theories of superconductivity: Study challenges the conventional wisdom of superconducting quantum transitions January 12th, 2024
Imaging
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Sensors
Discoveries
Chemical reactions can scramble quantum information as well as black holes April 5th, 2024
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Utilizing palladium for addressing contact issues of buried oxide thin film transistors April 5th, 2024
Materials/Metamaterials/Magnetoresistance
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Focused ion beam technology: A single tool for a wide range of applications January 12th, 2024
Announcements
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Photonics/Optics/Lasers
With VECSELs towards the quantum internet Fraunhofer: IAF achieves record output power with VECSEL for quantum frequency converters April 5th, 2024
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024
HKUST researchers develop new integration technique for efficient coupling of III-V and silicon February 16th, 2024
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
Premium Products | ||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||