Media

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

10 Nov 2017

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, 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)