All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Imagine something that looks like a sheet of glass, but if you could get really close... okay, electron microscope-close, you'd see a carpet of tiny fibers.
This newly developed nanomaterial can be made to repel or attract water, oil and dirt, and can even conduct electricity. The potential applications are mind-boggling.
The developed of these fibers was announced by Ohio State University researchers today, with an paper in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
By exposing the fibers to different chemicals during their fabrication, the researchers were able to give them different properties. In one example, they could make the fibers repel water, and in another situation, attract it.
They could also make the surfaces attract or repel oil. And given the right materials, the fibers can even conduct electricity.
The potential applications are numerous. For example, if the fibers repel water, oil and dirt, then they'd create almost self-cleaning surfaces; windows would stay clear longer.
By making them attractive, they'd make a good anti-fog coating, since they'd pull at water droplets and make them flatten out on a surface.
Or what about this?
Since they can conduct electricity, organic LEDs can be embedded in the surface and powered without wires.
The research has been published in the June issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Original source: OSU News Release
