There’s a lot of water-repellent surfaces, but nothing as incredible as this new miracle material that — according to the research paper published in Nature — repels water way “below what was previously thought possible.” As you can see in the clip above, the water bounces completely off the surface, leaving nothing behind.
Its inventors say it’s inspired by lotus’ leaves and butterfly’s wings design, which are the most efficient water repellent surfaces in the planet, way more than any artificial material — until now.
Their method is quiet clever: Instead of reducing the contact surface of the material as it is traditionally done, they altered its texture at the nano level to change the water drop’s hydrodynamics. The surface’s morphology redistributes water’s mass, they say, which “reduces the overall contact time between a bouncing drop and a surface” and therefore keeping things dry.