Wyss Core Faculty member Joanna Aizenberg will present the ‘SLIPS’ technology – a novel surface coating that repels almost all liquids and solids – developed at the Wyss Institute by Aizenberg and her team. These bioinspired coatings that mimic slippery surfaces of a pitcher plant outperform state-of-the-art materials in their ability to resist ice and microbial adhesion, repel various simple and complex liquids, prevent marine fouling, or reduce drag. Generalized design principles for stable, shear-tolerant nanostructured SLIPS and low-cost, scalable methods to manufacture such coatings on glass, ceramics, polymers, fabrics and metals will be presented.
The performance of SLIPS in condensers, heat exchangers, membranes, and medical devices will be discussed, as well as the anticipation that slippery surfaces can find important applications as antifouling materials in medicine, construction, naval and aircraft industries, fluid handling and transportation, optical sensing, and as antifouling surfaces against highly contaminating media operating in extreme environments.