How Engineers Use Heat-Free Technology to Make Metallic Replicas of a Rose's Surface Texture

 


The ability to create metallic replicas of soft, natural surfaces like rose petals has been developed by scientists. The original properties of the team's metallic surfaces were still present, such as the sticky yet water-resistant textures of a rose petal 


Blue Morph butterfly wings have a shiny, light-scattering texture; shark skin has a rough, drag-reducing texture; and rose petals have a sticky, water-repellent texture.  

However, how can natural textures and properties be utilized in an engineered setting? Could a lotus plant's phobic and water-repellent texture be used to prevent icing on an aircraft wing? Molding polymers and other soft materials or etching patterns onto hard materials that required expensive equipment and lacked accuracy have been used in previous attempts. But what about making moldable metallic bio-structures at a low cost? 


Martin Thou of Iowa State University and the students who are a part of his research group have succeeded in their pursuit of "frugal science/innovation," which he refers to as "the ability to minimize cost and complexity while providing efficient solutions to better human conditions." Thou's definition of this term is as follows: 


They are using their previous work on liquid metal particles to create perfectly molded metallic versions of natural surfaces, such as rose petals, for this project. They can do it without causing a petal any harm or using heat or pressure.  

In a recent online publication in the German Chemical Society journal Cherie, they describe the BITMAP technology. The corresponding author is Thou, an associate professor of materials science and engineering with a courtesy appointment in electrical and computer engineering. All the co-authors are materials science and engineering students at Iowa State: doctoral students Julia Chang, Andrew Martin, and Chuanshen Du; and a student named Alana Paul 


When tiny droplets of metal are coated with an oxidation layer and exposed to oxygen, the metal forms liquid metal. 

Particles of varying sizes are used in the BITMAP process, with each having a diameter of a few millionths of a meter. Through the independent processes of self-filtration, capillary pressure, and evaporation, the particles are applied to a surface, covering it and fitting into all the nooks, crannies, and patterns.  


Instead of sticking to the surface, the particles are joined and solidified by a chemical trigger. Because of this, solid replicas of metallic materials can be lifted off, resulting in a negative relief in the surface texture. Utilizing the inverse replica to create a mold and then repeating the BITMAP procedure can produce positive reliefs 

"You lift it off, it looks exactly the same", Thou stated, noting that the engineers were able to distinguish between various rose cultivars and textures in the metallic replicas of those cultivars. 

 

Importantly, just like in elastomer-based soft lithography, the replicas kept the surfaces' physical properties. 

According to Thou, "the metal structure maintains those ultra hydrophobic properties, just like a lotus plant or a rose petal". "On a metal rose petal, a drop of water sticks, but on a metal lotus leaf, it just disappears". 


According to Thou, these properties could be used to improve heat transfer in air conditioning systems or de-icing on aeroplane wings. 


Thou stated that this is the method by which a modest amount of inventiveness "can mold the delicate structures of a rose petal into a solid metal structure". We anticipate that this method will lead to novel strategies for producing metallic surfaces that are hydrophobic based on the structure rather than coatings 

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