© Photo by Wayne Boo, U.S. Geological Survey
Researchers have demonstrated a new fabrication technique that allows them replicate the nanostructures found on cicada wings that make them water- and microbe-repellent.
Champaign, Illinois. — A multidisciplinary group that studies the physical and chemical properties of insect wings
has demonstrated the ability to reproduce the nanostructures that help cicada wings repel water and prevent bacteria from establishing on the surface. The new technique - which uses commercial nail polish - is economical and straightforward, and the researchers said it will help fabricate future high-tech waterproof materials.
The team used a simplified version of a fabrication process - called nanoimprinting lithography - to make a template of the complex pillar-shaped nanostructures on the wings of
Neotibicen pruinosus, an annual cicada found in the central region of the United States. The templates are fully dissolvable and produce replicas that average 94.4% of the pillar height and 106% of the original wing, or master structure's pillar diameter, the researchers said.
The results of the study are published in the journal
Nano Letters.
"We chose to work with wings of this species of cicada because our
past work demonstrates how the complex nanostructures on their wings provide an outstanding ability to repel water. That is a highly desirable property that will be useful in many materials engineering applications, from aircraft wings to medical equipment," said
Marianne Alleyne, an
entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who co-led the study with Donald Cropek, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, and
Nenad Miljkovic, a professor of
mechanical science and engineering at Illinois.
Comment: View in addition the end of this report for a listing of the exceptional number of fatalities caused by dog attacks across the world so far in 2020.