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Superhydrophic ‘flowers’

At first glance, this may look like a moody abstract image of a carnation, shot on black-and-white film as it rustles in the wind on a moonlit night. Actually, this image was taken by a field emission scanning microscope at micrometer scale resolution. Orio Rius-Ayra, a materials scientist at the University of Barcelona, used electric currents to deposit hydrophobic particles on an aluminum plate. During the process of electrochemical deposition, the particles assembled into the pictured hierarchical structures with nanofeatures. The abundance of these hydrophobic microstructures makes the aluminum superhydrophobic, a property Rius-Ayra says can be used for environmental applications like separating oil from contaminated water. — Emily Harwitz

Submitted by Oriol Rius-Ayra

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