Captain
America, AntMan and Mr. Atom fans all over the world will finds this bit of News
very exciting. Queue the movie Trailer for Captain American, The Winter
Soldier.
Researchers
at the University of Rochester have developed a way to make Metal hydrophobic
by tracing a pattern at the nanoscopic level using a Laser as reported in the
article “Laser-generated
surface structures create extremely water-repellent metals”, published Jan
20, 2015, Physorg.
Their
research, published in the Journal of Applied Physics, was led by Dr. Chunlei
Guo and his colleague at the University's Institute of Optics, Anatoliy
Vorobyev involving the use of Femtosecond Lasers to carve intricate patterns on
the Metal surface.
Yes,
in case you're a fan of my blog My Thoughts on
Technology and Jamaica these past years, these are the same Femtosecond Lasers
used in Research done by Dr. Jingyu Zhang at the University of Southampton's
Optoelectronics Research Center and Eindhoven's University of Technology to
write Data to naturally occurring Quartz Crystal back in July 2013 as chronicled
in my blog
article entitled “University
of Southampton and Eindhoven's University write and read Data to Quartz Crystal
- Eternal Storage borrowed from Superman Man of Steel”.
FemtoLaser,
more correctly called Femtosecond Lasers, are Lasers that pulse rapidly on and
off with a period of 1x10−15 seconds or a frequency of 1000 THz.
According to their Research, during each pulse the amount of energy release per
pulse is equivalent to the power requirements of the entire US of A, yet it’s
powered from a Wall socket.
So
how does this Femtosecond Lasers makes Metal and potentially any surface have
these properties? Apparently a capacitor is involved, as I’ll explain later.
Dr. Chunlei Guo
Patterns on a Metal – Making Music on the Surface at a Nanoscopic Level
This
super powerful yet apparently portable Laser is used to blast out a pattern on
the surface of the Metal that looks like quilted Downy Toilet Paper, making the
surface ultra-smooth and flat, with few large nanoscopic mountains on the
surface as shown below, only gentle rolling hills at least 20 to 50 Atoms
across.
The
resulting pattern on the Metal becomes a permanent part of the Metal’s surface,
unlike coating like Liquipel that merely coats a given surface with a
hydrophobic organic polymer as noted in my blog article
entitled “Waterproof
and Water-Resistant with Liquipel 2.0 – How to make your smartphone
Water-Resistant to even Toilet Water”.
In
fact, the surface is so hydrophobic that water literally bounces off the
surface, collecting dust particles as it rolls around, making such a surface
easier to clean and impossible to get dirty.
Even
more impressive is that the angle at which water will roll off such a surface
is only 5°.
This
is much lower than the 70° angle required to make water roll of a source coated
with PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) commercially known as Teflon and the
substance used to coat non-stick Metal or Ceramic Frying pots.
Best
of all, it doesn’t rust!
University of Rochester
and Hydrophobic Metal – Mr. Atom becomes an Architect at the Nanoscopic scale
Strange
as it may seem, scratching an intricate, precise pattern on a metallic surface
using a high precision Femtosecond Lasers imparts incredible properties to the Metal.
This
shouldn't come as a surprise as if the Laser is a powerful as advertised in the
Journal, at that power level it can create Quantum Dots of Metals on the
surface of the Metal at an atomic scale.
Effectively,
this is the equivalent of dropping atomic bombs on the surface of the Metal to
move mountains of Atoms to create intricately precise machined structures.
Another
way to look at it is that it’s no different from someone shrinking down to the
size of an Atom, like Mr. Atom. Then that person or Team of Atom sized
individuals, armed with pickaxes, shovels or better yet a Caterpillar backhoe
and other earth moving equiptment like dynamite and pneumatic drills at that nanoscopic
level, would dig into the Metal surface.
Using
those theoretical nanoscopic tools along with other miniature tools, these
Atomic sized miners can move and pile the Atoms into intricate patterns that in
turn, impart properties to the metallic surface. Best of all, because it’s at a
nanoscopic scale using the Atoms from the surface of the Metal, these changes
are a permanent part of the metallic surface, imparting, as I said, different
properties to the metallic surface.
If
my theoretical miners at the Atomic scale were to dig up Atoms on the metals
surface and pile the Metal Atoms into slanting vertical columns that resulted
in photons begin reflected back down to the surface of the Metal, they could
create internal reflection.
Such
structures could be channels with covered archways that had small slit-like
openings or even skyscrapers with very smooth reflective surfaces. What would happen is that photons of light
reaching such a nano-sculpted surface would continuously reflect light back down
to the metallic “surface”, making it appear permanently black.
This
is what Dr. Chunlei Guo’s Research Team at the University of Rochester did back
in November 2006 using a Femtosecond Lasers to create a surface that absorbs
light, actually reflecting and refracting it on the surface so well that it's
permanent black, as noted in the article “Ultra-intense Laser blast creates true
'black Metal'”, published Nov 21, 2006, Physorg.
To
quote Dr. Chunlei Guo in his own words back then, quote: “We've been surprised
by the number of possible applications for this. We wanted to see what would
happen to a Metal's properties under different Laser conditions and we stumbled
on this way to completely alter the reflective properties of metals”.
Similarly,
if our atomic Miners were to dig up Atoms on the surface of the Metal and make
little parallel trenches at least 20 Atoms and separated by walls at least 40 Atoms
wide going in one direction, this system of canal ways would basically be a
nano-capillary system.
Using
Van Der Waal's forces of attraction at the Nanoscopic scale to attract liquid,
making it possible to overcome the liquids Atoms own internal covalent and Van
Der Waal forces of attraction and causing it to climb up any surface.
This
is what Dr. Chunlei Guo’s Research Team at the University of Rochester did back
in June 2009 using as Femtosecond Lasers to create a surface that can attract
water and make it go uphill as reported
in the article entitled “Scientists
create Metal that pumps liquid uphill”, published Jun3 02, 2009, Physorg.
This
would be the opposite of the surface that is hydrophobic; Dr. Chunlei Guo’s Research
Team effectively created a hydrophilic surface that attracts water and make it
go upwards, against the force of gravity in a manner very similar to the
Leidenfrost Effect, but sans grooves and heated surfaces.
Again,
to quote Dr. Chunlei Guo own words back then, quote: “Imagine a huge waterway
system shrunk down onto a tiny chip, like the electronic circuit printed on a
microprocessor, so we can perform chemical or biological work with a tiny bit
of liquid. Blood could precisely travel along a certain path to a sensor for
disease diagnostics. With such a tiny system, a nurse wouldn't need to draw a
whole tube of blood for a test. A scratch on the skin might contain more than
enough cells for a micro-analysis”.
Nanoscopic Patterns on
Atomic Scale – Everything is possible with the Art of the Laser
Different
patterns on the surface of the Metal create different properties, no different
from etching a Processor in as Fabrication Lab at Intel. The different here is
that the fabrication process is done using a high-energy Laser that puts out as
much every per femtosecond as the US of A in a single blast in an area about as
small as the point of a needle on a Metal surface.
This
is possible thanks to using a high capacity Capacitor that stores energy and
discharges in rapid bursts to power the Femtosecond Lasers, scorching and
moving the reshaping the landscape at a nanoscopic scale, Atom by Atom. And as
this technique has been done for years on semiconductor silicon using chemical
and UV Light, so too can Femtosecond Lasers be used on other materials other
than Metal.
Just
be prepared to wait 1 hour to do a piece of Metal surface 1 inch square.
The
University of Rochester’s Team is working on a way to speed up the process and
scale it up to as manufacturing process, making it possible to build surfaces
with different properties based on the type of patterns that coat the surface.
Even secret messages can be store on to the surfaces, invisible to the naked
eye.
But
according to Dr. Chunlei Guo, the possibilities are endless in terms of the
properties that can be imparted to the surface based on the pattern as well as
the resolution of the nanoscopic manipulation of the material:
1.
Surfaces that are Hydrophobic and
Hydrophilic
2.
Surfaces that can reflect and absorb
light
3.
Surface that are effectively invisible
like the Harry Potters Invisibility cloak
4.
Surfaces that can reflect or absorb
sound e.g. like Captain America’s Vibranium shield
5.
Surfaces covered with data, effectively
an eternal storage media with infinite capacity
I'm
pretty excited about this, as it has immediate applications for the Developing
World, to quote Dr. Chunlei Guo: “In these regions, collecting rain water is
vital and using super-hydrophobic materials could increase the efficiency
without the need to use large funnels with high-pitched angles to prevent water
from sticking to the surface. A second application could be creating latrines
that are cleaner and healthier to use”.
It
also means I can finally get a non-stick Metal or Ceramic pot in the future that
won’t scratch off and will be permanently non-stick, great for cooking my
favoiurtie meal of Ramen noodles as described in my blog article
entitled “Cooking
Restart at MICO - How to Cook a Meal in under 30 minutes and make Drinks with
Bag Juice”!
Just
kidding, but at least it woundn’t rust so fast, thanks to this clever yet
innovative discovery by Dr. Chunlei Guo and his colleague at the University's
Institute of Optics, Anatoliy Vorobyev!
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