Fangqiong Tang, Yi Li and colleagues note that wool is naturally water-repellant, or hydrophobic, a feature that acts as a barrier to enhanced features such as anti-wrinkle, anti-shrinkage finishing ...

The diversity of plant surface structures, evolved over 460 million years, has led to a large variety of highly adapted functional structures. The plant cuticle provides structural and chemical ...

A superhydrophilic filter has proven able to remove more than 90 percent of contaminants from water used in hydraulic fracturing operations at shale oil and gas wells. A new filter produced by Rice ...

Introducing gas to fabrication changes the water-reacting properties of laser-induced graphene, making it either superhydrophilic or superhydrophobic. Rice University scientists who invented ...

Although liquids typically flow downwards, the capillary effect — a gravity-defying process exploited by the roots and stems of plants — also allows them to be drawn up through narrow tubes. The ...

Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology (FEP) claims to have applied crystalline titanium oxide to ultra-thin glass for the first time in a ...