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Inventors at Georgia Tech have developed a cellulose based paper substrate that are both superhydrophobic and superoloephobic that can be used to make oil proof surfaces.
About
Dennis Hess, Laurens Breedveld, and Lester Li from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech have produced a cellulose based paper substrate that are both superhydrophobic and superoloephobic. The superomniphobic paper is made by using a solvent exchange process, where the water in the pulp is replaced with sec-butanol. The butanol prevents hydrogen bonding between individual fibers, which allows the necessary fiber spacing to support oil droplets. The solvent process establishes the necessary structure to support high contact angles greater than 150 degrees, which is a significant improvement over current paper coating technologies. This technology also has the ability for variations and modifications without departing from the basic concept presented here.
Key Benefits
This invention is cost effective, has a higher oil repellency than currently available, can be modified to repel other substances and the paper is durable and strong- making it more functional than other omniphobic surfaces.
Applications
This technology has applications in paper based packaging and fiber based oil proof surfaces. Also, there is potential in the bioassay/biopharmaceutical industry- A superamphiphobic sheet with a region of functional molecules could be used to detect the presence of antibodies or disease from blood samples.