http://wyss.harvard.edu/staticfiles/newsroom/pressreleases/tunable_material-300x374.jpg
"Imagine a tent that block light on a dry and sunny
day, becomes transparent and water repellent on a dim, rainy day, or highly
precise, self-adjusting contact lenses that also clean themselves. Or pipelines
that can optimize the rate of flow depending on the volume of fluid coming
through them and the environmental conditions outside." - Wyss Institute
A team of researchers, the same responsible for the SLIPS
(Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surface) technology discussed in the previous
post, in the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Harvard's School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences (SEAS) just moved these enticing notions much closer to
reality by designing a new kind of adaptive material with tunable transparency
and wettability features.
Where SLIPS is a
liquid-infused rigid porous surface, the new tunable material is a
liquid-infused elastic porous surface. The bio-inspired material is based on
the core concept: any deformation of the substrate - such as stretching,
twisting, or swelling - changes the size of the pores in the elastic surface
which causes the liquid surface to change shape.
With this design, the
scientists have demonstrated the ability to dynamically control wettability
and optical transparency. Similarly to
SLIPS, at rest the material is a smooth, clear, and flat surface; droplets of
water, oil, blood, or other complex liquids flow freely off the material.
Deforming the substrate though, causes the pores to become larger and allowing
the liquid to fill in the larger spaces. This rougher surface makes the
material opaque and gives the ability of something never possible before; It
offers the ability to make any drop of liquid stop or start moving along the
surface.
This allows the
researches to manipulate basically anything that responds to a change in
surface topography. These could be anything from adhesives (dry and wet) and optical
properties to anti-fouling coatings. The elastic porous surface can also be
designed to react to stimuli such as change in temperature, magnetic or
electric fields, light, chemicals, pressure.
This new class of
adaptive materials have the potential to become game changers in everything
from oild and gas pipelines, optical systems, structural design, textiles, microfluidic
devices and more.
Note: This story has
been adapted from a news release issued by the Wyss institute for Biologically
Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
If you would like to check out videos of this new material
in action, click the link below:
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