Super-Hydrophobic Spray Hits the Shelves

Some Pennsylvania chemists whose super-hydrophobic spray became a viral video sensation a few years ago have finally brought their NeverWet product to market. Home Depot will sell the spray thanks to a licensing agreement with the folks at Rust-Oleum.

The inventors at Ross Nanotechnology (based in Lancaster, PA) accidentally created the spray while searching for a way to protect steel from corrosion. The spray forms a very high contact angle (165°) for any liquid that touches it, so the liquid beads up and rolls off the surface.

From the company’s site:

The contact angle of water on a surface is the angle of the leading edge of a water droplet on the surface as measured from the center of the droplet. A surface with a contact angle of 180° would mean that water sits on it as a perfect sphere. Hydrophobic surfaces are measured between 90° and 180°.

When the local press ran an article accompanied by a video, the demo film received 4.8 million views after word spread about the silicon-based spray’s ability to repel chocolate syrup.

I’ve posted the original video below, along with a new video (in which NeverWet employees coat an iPhone, among other things). The official Rust-Oleum video (at the bottom of this post) is slightly more conservative.

For more information, you can request the NeverWet white paper.

Source: Lancaster Online, NeverWet