Rain, rain, go away: New waterproofing solution discovered by SFU chemistry team
Simon Fraser University chemistry professor and project lead Hogan Yu estimates that their patented waterproofing solution will be up to 90 percent cheaper to produce.
2021-04-27
(Press-News.org) A new coating solution discovered by researchers at Simon Fraser University can transform regular materials into waterproof surfaces. The product will be cheaper to produce, free of harmful fluorinated compounds, and effective on a variety of materials. Their research findings have been published in Nature Communications.
SFU chemistry professor and project lead Hogan Yu estimates that their patented waterproofing solution will be up to 90 percent cheaper to produce. Yu and his team are currently floating the idea by investors and companies with the goal of commercializing the product.
The new formula was invented at Yu's lab when SFU graduate student Lishen Zhang and another student were working on an experiment in 2016. The student used a reagent that had been left open for a few days, surprisingly generating waterproof surfaces. "At the time we believed the extended air exposure led to the degradation of the reagent, which inspired Lishen to explore an unconventional reaction that is now critical to our coating technology," says Yu.
Yu and his team have spent the past five years testing and refining the formula for the coating solution, which is based on a simple combination of chemicals known as organosilane, water and an industrial solvent. A variety of materials, such as fabric, glass, wood and metal can be sprayed with or dipped into the coating mixture. Tests have shown that the treated surfaces remain waterproof for at least 18 months and further testing is underway to determine their performance over an even longer time period or under harsh physical conditions.
The waterproof coating's effectiveness was examined through so-called water contact angle tests. On a water-repellant (hydrophobic) surface, a droplet remains spherical and slides off instead of sinking into and clinging to the surface. The team found that their coating has the highest water contact angles when compared with the branded commercial products, such as Scotchgard™, Woods™, KIWI™, NikwaxTM, NeverWet®, and Grangers™.
Beyond waterproof clothing, the researchers anticipate that their invention could be applied in creating antibiofouling, stain-resistant coatings for iron or steel, anti-icing and water-repelling paint for building construction, as well as efficient membranes for water-oil separation.
"Since the method to produce this waterproofing solution is simple and low-cost, the production can also be easily scaled up for industrial and commercial applications," Yu explains.
This product shows excellent properties in terms of waterproofing, convenience, cost and robustness, and it's also environmentally-friendly," he adds. "We believe this product could help improve people's lives in a number of ways, such as keeping us dry and comfortable on rainy days, which are common on the West Coast where we love to live."
The team is currently liaising with SFU's Technology Licensing Office about IP protection and commercialization plans, after a provisional U.S. patent application was filed in January.
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-04-27
In the Council of the European Union, member states mostly cooperate with other countries in their geographical proximity. However, once it became clear that the United Kingdom was going to leave the EU, the member states also started cooperating to a greater extent with ideologically like-minded members. Research from the University of Gothenburg shows that Brexit may, in part, have changed the logic behind how cooperation in the Council of the European Union is structured.
The Council of the European Union is one of the most important EU decision-makers. Government ministers from the 27 EU member states participate in the ...
2021-04-27
Scientific classifications of forest vegetation on the territory of the former USSR, including the Republic of Tatarstan, previously used the dominant approach, traditional for northern countries, taking into account the dominance degree of one or another species in the main tree layer, or similarity in the composition of subordinate layers with the identification of cycles and series of associations. Currently, the classification of plant communities of the Republic of Tatarstan is made on a dominant-determinant basis and is reflected, for example, in the vegetation map of the Atlas of the Republic of Tatarstan and other publications.
The classification ...
2021-04-27
The LUX team at DESY is celebrating not just one but two milestones in the development of innovative plasma accelerators. The scientists from the University of Hamburg and DESY used their accelerator to test a technique that allows the energy distribution of the electron beams produced to be kept particularly narrow. They also used artificial intelligence to allow the accelerator to optimise its own operation. The scientists are reporting their experiments in two papers published shortly after one another in the journal Physical Review Letters. "It's ...
2021-04-27
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a gram-negative pathogen that has infected half of the world's population is a Group I carcinogen according to the WHO. H. pylori resides in the gastric mucosa causing gastritis, ulcers, gastric cancers and malignant lymphoma of the stomach. It can be eradicated in most infected people using a combination of three drugs; antibiotics clarithromycin, amoxicillin, and gastric acid suppressants. Amoxicillin exerts antibacterial activity by inhibiting the biosynthesis of peptidoglycan present in the cell wall of bacteria, and clarithromycin exerts antibacterial activity by inhibiting protein synthesis.
The current success rate of H. pylori eradication is about 90%. ...
2021-04-27
Anyone who lives in Okinawa, a subtropical island in Japan, has an appreciation of the intensity of its pig farming industry. The farms have a large effect on the island's economy and culture. According to Japan's Cabinet Office, as of 2018, there were over 225,000 pigs in Okinawa. Pork is a staple in the local diet and is found in many dishes in traditional restaurants. But the presence of the pig farms has another, less welcome, impact - the odor-y kind. Drive through some particularly farm-filled areas with the car's windows wound down and you're sure to be filled with regret.
This smell is, at least in part, caused by a byproduct of the pig farming. ...
2021-04-27
University of South Australia researchers have drawn inspiration from a 300-million-year-old superior flying machine - the dragonfly - to show why future flapping wing drones will probably resemble the insect in shape, wings and gearing.
A team of PhD students led by UniSA Professor of Sensor Systems, Javaan Chahl, spent part of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown designing and testing key parts of a dragonfly-inspired drone that might match the insect's extraordinary skills in hovering, cruising and aerobatics.
The UniSA students worked remotely on the project, solving mathematical formulas at home on whiteboards, digitising stereo photographs of insect wings into 3D models, and using spare rooms as rapid prototyping workshops to test parts of the flapping wing drone.
Their findings have ...
2021-04-27
The current loss of biological diversity is unprecedented and species extinctions exceed the estimated background rate many times over. Coinciding with increasing human domination and alteration of the natural world, this loss in abundance and diversity is especially pronounced with - but not limited to - fauna in the tropics. A new publication from scientists at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) in Sweden and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in Germany now explores the links between defaunation of tropical forests and the United ...
2021-04-27
Several organisms possess "ion channels" (gateways that selectively allow charged particles called ions to enter the cells and are integral for cell function) called "channelrhodopsins," that can be switched on and off with the help of light. Different channelrhodopsins respond to different wavelengths in the light spectrum. These channels can be expressed in foreign organisms (animals even in human) by means of genetic engineering, which in turn finds applications in optogenetics, or the application of light to modulate cellular and gene functions. So far, the shortest wavelength that a channelrhodopsin ...
2021-04-27
Monash University researchers have uncovered for the first time the reason mutations in a particular gene lead to mitochondrial disease.
The finding, published in PNAS journal and led by Professor Mike Ryan from Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute, shows that a gene responsible for causing loss of vision and hearing, TMEM126A, makes a protein that helps build an important energy generator in mitochondria. So, if this gene is defective, it reduces mitochondrial function and impares energy production, uncovering why mutations lead to the disease.
Mitochondria are critical structures within ...
2021-04-27
Portopulmonary hypertension (PoPH) is a form of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). PoPH occurs in approximately 15% of patients with PAH, and is reportedly found in 2-6% of patients with portal hypertension and 1-2% of patients with liver cirrhosis according to studies from Europe and America. However, the real-world data on PoPH in Japan are largely unknown, with many questions on the condition's etiology and prevalence.
Led by doctorate student Shun-ichi Wakabayashi of Shinshu University, the goal of this investigation is to clarify the actual state of PoPH among patients with chronic liver disease by screening all such patients treated at Shinshu University Hospital.
Although there is considerable uncertainty on the impact of PoPH, it is known that ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Rain, rain, go away: New waterproofing solution discovered by SFU chemistry team
Simon Fraser University chemistry professor and project lead Hogan Yu estimates that their patented waterproofing solution will be up to 90 percent cheaper to produce.
