Chemical Engineering November 2015 - 10

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Liquid-infused surfaces
move toward commercial
applications
A
set of
tech -
nologies
that creImmobilized
lubricant
overlayer
Unwanted
fluid or
biological foulant
slipping off the surface
ate an immobilized
thin layer
of lubricant on
a solid surface,
thus enabling
highly repellent,
omniphobic surfaces,
has moved
closer to commercial
application. Known as slippery, liquid-infused
porous surfaces (SLIPS), the technologies can be applied
to metal, plastic, glass and ceramic surfaces,
and can repel a wide range of liquids and biological
fouling agents.
Roughened/
porous
surface
SLIPS Technologies
" SLIPS differ fundamentally from other nanostructured
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10
repellent surfaces because they maintain a resilient liquid
covering over the solid surface, rather than presenting
a solid surface to a liquid to be repelled, " explains
Daniel Behr, CEO of SLIPS Technologies (Cambridge,
Mass.; www.slipstechnologies.com), which is commercializing
the technology under an exclusive license from
Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass.; www.harvard.
edu), where SLIPS were first invented. " The surface
texture does not have to be highly ordered, as in nanostructured
coatings, allowing an easier path to scaling
up the technology, " he says. (For more on nanostructured,
superomniphobic surfaces, see Chem. Eng.,
January 2015, p. 12).
The general process by which SLIPS are created involves
introducing some degree of porosity or roughness
to a solid surface, which is then chemically functionalized.
The functionalized surface is then infused
with a lubricant material, which forms a stable, immobilized
and resilient liquid-film overlayer (diagram).
" By carefully engineering the surface morphology and
chemical functionalization, and matching it to a particular
lubricant type, a wide range of SLIPS can be
created that could have uses in many applications, "
says Behr. A major technical hurdle in development
was figuring out how to maintain robust and persistent
lubricant coatings through non-covalent interactions,
says Philseok Kim, a co-inventor of the technology
and a co-founder of SLIPS Technologies.
SLIPS applications include promoting the shedding
of ice formed on the exterior of heat-exchanger coils in
refrigeration, the release of highly viscous materials from
industrial equipment such as containers, chutes, molds
and others, and preventing the formation of biofilms.
The company also received a grant recently for developing
SLIPS for preventing the adhesion of barnacles and
mussels to ship hulls.
SLIPS Technologies is working with a number of commercial
development partners on integrating SLIPS into
existing products, and on employing SLIPS in end-use
applications, Behr notes.
ChemiCal engineering www.Chemengonline.Com november 2015
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Chemical Engineering November 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering November 2015
