Super boffins at P2i in the UK have come up with a new liquid repelling material which can be coated onto consumer electronics like mobile phones, as well as clothing, glass, wood et al. The clever thing is that they’re using a plasma technology – which I completely do not understand – to apply the coating in nano-metre thicknesses. This makes it invisible, cheaper and more effective to apply, which I suppose means that it should actually work as advertised. Article here.
‘The original research…focused on creating an effective process to coat military garments to repel environmental hazards, such as water, oils, petrol and lubricants as well as chemical agent challenges. Due to the very low surface energy of the resulting technology (one third that of Teflon, an industry standard), numerous consumer benefits could be identified in a wide range of market areas.’