Scientists Develop New Super Slippery Material

[IndyRob]

A super-slippery material that causes water, oil and even jam to slide off without leaving any residue could mean an end to fighting to get sauce out of ketchup bottles.

The article talks about the age old (okay, decades old) problem of getting ketchup out of a bottle. This material would allow to glide out of the bottle - perhaps too well....

But my mind went to the implications on dish washing. Could I turn a plate vertically over a trash can and immediately have a clean plate? Would servers have to develop new skills to prevent a chef's meticulous presentation from meeting an ignomious end?

But if this pans out, and is proven safe, I wonder what sort of novel applications it might find.

[Edward J]

One of the biggest problems with teflon, is getting the teflon to stick to the substrate......

[Lisa Shock]

I thought that condiment companies purposefully packaged their products in containers designed to leave a percentage behind in the container to increase sales volume.

[ScoopKW]

1) I'm all for anything that beats Teflon. I don't dislike Teflon, but I have to be VERY careful with it, because we have pet birds. Heat it up too much, and the fumes will kill a bird but quick.

2) And since "canary in a coalmine" is still a useful idiom, I'm reluctant to use anything that, if overheated, kills birds but quick.

We have ONE teflon pan -- for eggs and eggs only. Everything else is stainless and copper. Low tech, but time tested. I'll give this new Wundergunk some time before trying it.

[Kouign Aman]

Sounds like the stuff covering the new 'spatula' Andiesenji linked in the kitchen gadget threads. It moved swirls of mayonnaise and ketchup around, unmarred. The thought of a carefully sauced plate slipping about ... or trying to cut a piece of meat that will. not. stay. put.

But so very nice for pre-plating, or transferring from one surface to another.

Unless your birds roam freely in the house, or you have small or disobedient kiids there's no reason to avoid avocados.

The teflon thing was a concern for us, because things like dry-frying could potentially cause sufficient fumes. We found that our general practice of watching pans so we didnt have fire also worked fine to keep from scorching teflon and killing the bird (macaw). Still, it was a long thoughtful discussion before we decided to use those pans, and I can see deciding otherwise.

[Viktoria]

Teflon is only truly problematic at high temperatures, which is why it's not recommended to heat them empty. The material starts to deteriorate above 500F. Birds seem to be especially sensitive. Humans can seem to experience symptoms, too, when the material breaks down.

I've glanced over the actual science article, which was published in Nature in September. Joanna Aizenberg is brilliant, and she's doing amazing things with bioinspired materials.

This material is very cool. She's fabricated a nanoscale structured material (nanoscale is very roughly 1/100 the width of a human hair) and infused it with a lubricant. The structure repels certain liquids and the lubricant repels others. There didn't seem to be any mention of the temperature range the material can survive, but the article implies mechanical stability. The other cool thing is its optical transparency. So this has potential for dirt, and ice repellant on windows, etc.

I also don't remember what it said about the fabrication process, which might limit applications. Teflon, for example, is very hard to apply to anything, and requires harsh processing to make it happen.

[runwestierun]

A super-slippery material that causes water, oil and even jam to slide off without leaving any residue could mean an end to fighting to get sauce out of ketchup bottles.

The article talks about the age old (okay, decades old) problem of getting ketchup out of a bottle. This material would allow to glide out of the bottle - perhaps too well....

I think the problem with getting ketchup out of a bottle lies with the ketchup itself, not how slippery the bottle is. Ketchup a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic and behaves oddly in terms of its viscosity. Specifically, the more stress that's put on it, the less viscous it becomes. That's why you can squeeze it out of a bottle in a stream like a liquid, but it stays put on your hamburger and doesn't run off. Ketchup is a type of non-newtonian fluid called shear thinning. Another example is paint. When you apply stress with the brush, the paint flows, but once it is applied it doesn't continue to flow, even if it's applied rather thickly.

Non-Newtonian fluids are cool. I am sure you have played with cornstarch and water. It behaves oppositely from ketchup: the more stress you put on it the more viscous it becomes. For a fluid to be non-Newtonian it just has to have a non-linear relationship between shear stress and shear rate (related to stress and viscosity).

[Toliver]

A super-slippery material that causes water, oil and even jam to slide off without leaving any residue could mean an end to fighting to get sauce out of ketchup bottles.

The article talks about the age old (okay, decades old) problem of getting ketchup out of a bottle. This material would allow to glide out of the bottle - perhaps too well....

I think the problem with getting ketchup out of a bottle lies with the ketchup itself, not how slippery the bottle is. Ketchup a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic and behaves oddly in terms of its viscosity. Specifically, the more stress that's put on it, the less viscous it becomes. That's why you can squeeze it out of a bottle in a stream like a liquid, but it stays put on your hamburger and doesn't run off. Ketchup is a type of non-newtonian fluid called shear thinning. Another example is paint. When you apply stress with the brush, the paint flows, but once it is applied it doesn't continue to flow, even if it's applied rather thickly.

Non-Newtonian fluids are cool. I am sure you have played with cornstarch and water. It behaves oppositely from ketchup: the more stress you put on it the more viscous it becomes. For a fluid to be non-Newtonian it just has to have a non-linear relationship between shear stress and shear rate (related to stress and viscosity).

I love an SSB! Thanks for the education.

[Lisa Shock]

A super-slippery material that causes water, oil and even jam to slide off without leaving any residue could mean an end to fighting to get sauce out of ketchup bottles.

The article talks about the age old (okay, decades old) problem of getting ketchup out of a bottle. This material would allow to glide out of the bottle - perhaps too well....

I think the problem with getting ketchup out of a bottle lies with the ketchup itself, not how slippery the bottle is. Ketchup a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic and behaves oddly in terms of its viscosity. Specifically, the more stress that's put on it, the less viscous it becomes. That's why you can squeeze it out of a bottle in a stream like a liquid, but it stays put on your hamburger and doesn't run off. Ketchup is a type of non-newtonian fluid called shear thinning. Another example is paint. When you apply stress with the brush, the paint flows, but once it is applied it doesn't continue to flow, even if it's applied rather thickly.

Non-Newtonian fluids are cool. I am sure you have played with cornstarch and water. It behaves oppositely from ketchup: the more stress you put on it the more viscous it becomes. For a fluid to be non-Newtonian it just has to have a non-linear relationship between shear stress and shear rate (related to stress and viscosity).

Well, I read a book on business by a guy who went to Heinz in the 70's with a design for a bottle that would let the ketchup flow freely and they turned him away because the long slow pour was their marketing gimmick. They used to try and create an illusion of quality by equating it with thickness.

You may have noticed that it flows pretty well out of the squeeze bottles. The marketing people realized that if kids could be trusted to use a ketchup bottle, by making it easier to pour, they could sell more of it since kids are the major consumers of ketchup. Long Reference Article

[IndyRob]

Non-Newtonian fluids are cool. I am sure you have played with cornstarch and water. It behaves oppositely from ketchup: the more stress you put on it the more viscous it becomes.

A demonstration.

An old co-worker who used to be a waiter showed us a ketchup trick at lunch one day when it became needed. If you're having problems getting ketchup out of the bottle, hold your left hand as though you're about to karate chop the table. Then rap the neck of the bottle on your index finger right at the top level of the ketchup. I imagine this is an example of them shear thingies at work.

[Lisa Shock]

Or, just stick a knife up the neck and the ketchup will flow right down the blade.