Media

HKU weekly notice

10 Nov 2017

 

No more laundry?
Innovative and ideal liquid-repellent surfaces developed by HKU scientists could make the dream come true!
No more laundry in the future?!

The challenge was recently overcome by breakthrough research led by Professor Wang Liqiu at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) through the development of a robust liquid-repellent structure and the fabrication of porous surfaces by an innovative microfluidic-droplet-based technique. Materials such as textiles, metals, and glasses covered by a layer of this robust porous surface can then become liquid-repellent. The paper was recently published in academic journal Nature Communications.

On liquid-repellent surfaces, liquid droplets bounce away instead of being stuck. The dream of research and development on liquid-repellents is a structure that has robust liquid repellency, strong mechanical stability, and is inexpensive to produce on a commercial scale. However, the functional outcomes of existing liquid-repellent surfaces have not been satisfactory, because of inadequacies of conventional structural design and fabrication approaches in engineering microstructures and properties of such surfaces.

Inspired by springtail cuticles, the HKU research team designed porous surfaces with a re-entrant profile: interconnectivity ensures mechanical stability and re-entrant structure yields robust liquid-repellency. The robust liquid-repellent surfaces innovated by the research team can repel at least 10 types of liquid, including water, surfactant solutions, oils, and organic solvents and show an astounding over 21-fold enhancement in mechanical stability.

The research team also developed an innovative microfluidic-droplet-based technique. Molded by microfluidic droplets, commercial-scale uniform microstructures are produced at low cost at only one thousandth of that in purchasing commercialized products such as PTFE water-repellent film.

The breakthrough can suit a desired application in various fields, including energy, buildings, automobiles, chemical engineering, electronics, environments, bio-medical industry, advanced manufacturing, water vehicle and military equipment.

The research team will meet the media to share the research findings. Details of the media briefing are as follows:
Date: November 14, 2017 (next Tuesday)
Time/Activity/Venue:
10:45 Demonstration and photo taking at Nanofluids Laboratory, Room 116, 1/F, Haking Wong Building, HKU, Pokfulam, HK (MTR HKU Station Exit A2)
11:15 Press briefing at Conference Room, Conference Room, Room 515, 5/F, Haking Wong Building
Spokespersons:
Professor Wang Liqiu, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, HKU
Dr Zhu Pingan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, HKU

Media contact:
Communication and Public Affairs Office Ms Rhea Leung (Tel: +852 2857 8555/ +852 9022 7446; Email: rhea.leung@hku.hk)
Faculty of Engineering Ms Bonnie Tsang (Tel: 3917 1924; Email: bonniepy@hku.hk)

HKUL Book Talk - The Silver Way: China, Spanish America and the Birth of Globalisation, 1565-1815

Speakers:            Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales
Date:                   November 15, 2017 (Wednesday)
Time:                   6:30 - 8:00 pm
Venue:                 Special Collections, 1/F, Main Library, The University of Hong Kong
Language:           English

About the Speakers
Peter Gordon is editor of the Asian Review of Books, publisher at Chameleon Press, co-founder of e-commerce firm Paddyfield.com and a regular contributor to such periodical as the South China Morning Post, Caixin and The Diplomat. He was instrumental in the development of both the Hong Kong Kong International Literary Festival and the Man Asian Literary Prize. He is a graduate of Harvard University. 

Juan José Morales is a researcher of the early encounters between China and the West. A former president of the Spanish Chamber of Hong Kong, he is a law graduate of Universidad Complutense de Madrid, has a Master of International and Public Affairs from the University of Hong Kong and has also studied international relations at Peking University. His writing has appeared in the Asian Review of Books, Caixin and The Diplomat.

About the Book
In 1565, the navigator Andrés de Urdaneta discovered a sailing route across the Pacific which linked Asia and America. This led to a trading route, that of the Manila Galleon or Nao de China (China ships) that for 250 years served the exchange of Chinese silk and porcelain and other Asian goods for American silver. This ‘Ruta de la Plata’ or ‘Silver Way’ catalyzed economic and cultural exchange and ushered in the first era of globalisation, it laid the foundations for the first global currency (the “real de a ocho” or Spanish dollar) and led to the rise of the first ‘world city’, Mexico. Peter Gordon and Juan José Morales question the conventional narrative about globalisation and discuss whether the past could teach us more about China today.

HKUL Website: http://lib.hku.hk/
Connect with the Libraries on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hkulib/
YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/HKU-Libraries

Media Contact:  Mr. Gary Chin, Tel: 2859 2211 / Ms. Marina Yeung, Tel: 2859 8903

HKUL Photo Exhibition - "Peru's Memory: 1890-1950"
In collaboration with the Consulate General of Peru in Hong Kong and Macao, the Main Library is pleased to present Peru's Memory: 1890 - 1950 photo exhibition at the 2nd Floor Atrium/Exhibition Area of the Main Library from November 13 to 30, 2017.

Thirty-three photographs have been selected from the "Fotografia Memoria del Perú" by photographers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (1890-1950) capturing the history and everyday life in Peru, including the best works of the "Golden Age of Peruvian Photography" ¹.

"Thanks to these images and to many others like those, Peru, as we know it today, began to emerge before itself as an apprehensible reality. The natural wonders of its territory, the great monuments of its pre-Columbian past, the ancestral customs interwoven with the modernizing aspirations, the advance of the capitalist economy, and the social conflicts of a national society in formation.

Peru's Memory: 1890 - 1950 photos allows us to revive some of the construction process and to value the talent of masters of the lens such as Max T. Vargas, Martin Chambi, Carlos and Miguel Vargas, Juan Manuel Figueroa Aznar, Sebastian Rodriguez, Baldomero Alejos, and Walter 0. Runcie, to mention only some of the most conspicuous in this selection."¹

Details of the Exhibition
Date: November 13 to 30, 2017
Venue: Atrium/Exhibition Area, 2/F Main Library, the University of Hong Kong
Time: During Main Library Opening Hours
Closed on Public Holidays
Admission: Free

¹Consulate General of Peru in Hong Kong and Macao

Media Contact: Mr. Gary Chin, Tel: 2859 2211 / Ms. Marina Yeung, Tel: 2859 8903

UMAG exhibitions
1. Fibres of Life: IKAT Textiles of the Indonesian Archipelago Following the footsteps of a vanishing craft

Period: Now till November 26, 2017 (Sunday)

Looking at Peter Ten Hoopen’s Pusaka Collection from a scholarly point of view, it is worth acknowledging how it illustrates the concept of ‘unity in diversity’, which the young state of Indonesia chose as its motto upon independence. Here, the interwoven-ness of styles from its islands matter, as do their marked individuality and idiosyncrasies. Moreover, it allows for the study not just of the people’s finery, but also of their daily attire, which is lamentably absent in most collections.

An ironic illustration of the effect of this collecting method comes from Ili Mandiri on Flores. As its dark red bridewealth sarongs have been prized and venerated by the local population, this is what most sophisticated collections have aimed to obtain. The simple but lovely indigo sarongs for everyday use have been almost entirely ignored by collectors. Hence they nearly always end up worn to shreds and very few survive — rarer now than the precious and respected, hence eagerly collected, bridewealth sarongs.

What knowledge is conserved about ikat textiles and their use in the Indonesian archipelago consists primarily of the records of missionary and scientific fieldwork, predominantly compiled by non-Indonesians. The coverage is thin— many weaving regions are covered by only one or two sources, and several regions have never been studied in any detail. Much traditional knowledge is being lost, especially in the more remote island regions in the Indonesian archipelago, which require concerted effort if any trace of their culture is to survive.

Venue: 1/F T.T. Tsui Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam

2. Hong Kong by Guo Zhiquan: Cityscapes in Ink

Period: Now till November 12, 2017 (Sunday)

Born in Leshan (Sichuan Province, China) in 1942, Guo graduated from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and has exhibited widely in China. This is his first solo show in Hong Kong. Guo is a member of the Henan Artists Association, the Chinese Academy of Poetry, Painting and Calligraphy, and he is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, as well as the East & West Artists Association. He worked as the Dean of the Fine Arts Department of Luoyang University in 1986, where he specialised in landscape paintings, as well as bird-and-flower work and art criticism.

Guo is regularly the subject matter of art critics. For example, in 1993 Muxun LU, a renowned Chinese contemporary theorist, wrote an article titled ‘Boundless World Shaped by the Soul of Mountains and Rivers’, engaging with the artist’s exemplary landscape paintings. Subsequently, Guo exhibited at the National Art Museum of China and Tsinghua University, among other more academic institutions, and his work has been reviewed and praised by many established critics.

Venue: 2/F Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam

Opening Hours:
09:30 – 18:00 (Monday to Saturday)
13:00 – 18:00 (Sunday)
Closed on University and Public Holidays
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk
Admission: Free

Media enquiries:
UMAG Communications Officer Miss Elena Cheung, Tel: (852) 2241 5512, Email: elenac@hku.hk
UMAG Programme Assistant Miss Chelsea Choi, Tel: (852) 2241 5509, Email: cchelsea@hku.hk