How does the lotus effect work?
Nanoparticles are the material of the future!
They are small, even tiny, but don't underestimate them.
They have completely different properties from particles that can be seen with the naked eye or under a normal microscope. These special properties were used in developing nanotol®. Macroscopically, the sealed surface feels smoother; microscopically you can see the network of nanopolymers lying on the surface that is firmly bonded to the surface at what are known as docking sites.
Nanopolymers are chains of nanoparticles:
- Nano particles are only a few millionths of a millimeter in size. Aphids or bacteria are giants by comparison. Many material properties of a solid can no longer be observed when viewing a single atom, but are apparent only in a larger group of atoms.
- Nanoparticles consist of only relatively few atoms, thus they are somewhere in between a single atom and a normal solid.
- For example, they have an enormous surface area in relation to their volume.
- The light refraction index deviates greatly from the usual.
- Hardness, toughness, flexibility and behavior with water are determined by groups of molecules measured by nanometers.
nanotol®, a hydrophobic (water-repellant), lipophobic (fat-repellant), and oleophobic (oil-repellant) sealant that provides a special dirt-resistant and self-cleaning surface to the materials treated, was developed through the use of such nanoparticles and nanopolymers. Pure water can be used to remove dirt, whether dust, fat, or oil, from the surface. This goes far beyond the previously known lotus effect.
There are also self-cleaning surfaces in nature, for example the lotus blossom.
- Indian lotus blossom
Its leaves are always clean, for it has a built-in self-cleaning mechanism which is called the lotus effect because it was first discovered in the lotus blossom. On the leaves of the Indian lotus blossom, rainwater beads up and rolls down the leaf at the smallest slope, removing dust and soot from them. The surface remains clean and dries immediately after a rain shower.
Would you like to know more?
Find out how the lotus effect works, what its limits are, and what industry has learned from it.