Have you ever dropped your phone in water? If so you know the horrible feeling of “my phone is ruined”! But this whole situation can now be avoided with a recent discovery made by a British based firm called “P2i“. This firm is known for being the leaders in liquid repellent. The company was established in 2004; it was developed by the United Kingdom government’s defense science and technology laboratory (DSTL). Their new nano-coating is talked about in an article on CNN.

 

Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns

Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns

 

Their latest discovery is a liquid repellent nano-coating that provides a watertight solution. Simply spray the nano-coating onto a surface and liquids will be repelled. The trick is a “patented chemical that lowers an objects surface energy”, when the surface energy is lowered the “liquid forms beads upon contact and rolls off with out being absorbed”. This special chemical is extremely small- 50 nanometers wide (which is 1,000 times thinner than a human hair)!

The chemical sprays on clear which makes it invisible to the naked eye. So spray this on your iPhone or any mobile device and it won’t look a bit different. Stephen Coulson, the chemical engineer who invented this new technology stated “You look at it and you can’t see any change. But when you drop water on it, it will just bead up and drop off. More importantly, the internals will also be protected to prevent corrosion damage”.

Interestingly, the British Ministry of Defense started the question of whether water repellent chemicals could work- specifically to protect its soldiers during attack. They wanted uniforms that could resist all types of liquids including chemical weapons. So P2i created clothes for the British Army.

Continuing with their success, P2i now works with Motorola and TCL Alcatel. But they are not only limited to electronics, recently they began working with  shoe-makers K-Swiss, Nike and Adidas. P2i is now experimenting with formula one racing cars, tennis balls and surfboards. Coulson stated “we see the future as everything being treated with P2i’s technology”. Here is a video from CNN talking with P2i about the nano-coating. What do you think of this new product?