Superomniphobic Coating Repels Anything: Oil, Blood, Acid

Wizards… (cough cough) scientists at the University of Michigan have developed an incredible new coating that literally causes nearly any liquid that touches it to bounce right off. It’s being dubbed: “superomniphobic.”

In his laboratory, Professor Anish Tuteja and his team have developed a magical nanocoating that makes fabrics impervious to coffee, oil, soy sauce, gasoline, alcohol, and sulfuric acid to name a few.

This revolutionary coating was made possible using a mixture of rubbery plastic particles and liquid-resistant nanoscale cubes developed by the United States Air Force that contain carbon, fluorine, silicon, and oxygen.

This mixture works its magic by filling in the porous structure of the surface it’s applied to with tiny filaments. The web-like nature of this kind of structure means that between 95 and 99 percent of the coating is air.

“Virtually any liquid you throw on it bounces right off without wetting it. For many of the other similar coatings, very low surface tension liquids such as oils, alcohols, organic acids, organic bases and solvents stick to them and they could start to diffuse through and that’s not what you want,” said Tuteja.

Of 100 liquids the nanocoating was able to repel all but two. Here’s some interesting video of the coating showcasing its wonderous properties:

Journal of the American Chemical Society via UM

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