"Nano Mania"

Windows that cleans themselves. Artificial muscles made of intricate, DNA-like strands. Plastic electronic devices that users can see right through.

Nanotechnology researchers at Ohio State have created surfaces that hold the key to these futuristic devices--and many more.

A patent for creating the surfaces--a process Ohio State scientists explained in a recent issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology--is in the works.

To the naked eye, the surfaces look as flat and transparent as a sheet of glass. But under a microscope, it's a different story: The surfaces are covered with tiny fibers, which repel or attract substances such as oil, water, and dirt.

The repellant fibers could coat windows that would stay cleaner longer. The attracting fibers, on the other hand, could make a good anti-fog coating.

The attracting surface could be of use in the medical field: When the researchers put droplets of water containing DNA on the fibers, the DNA strands uncoiled and clung to the surface.

“We're very excited about where this kind of development can take us.”
— Professor Arthur Epstein

The fibers can also be made to conduct electricity, a find that could pave the way for transparent plastic electronics.

Researchers are currently looking for new uses for the technology, which the university will license.

"We can coat almost any surface with these fibers," says Arthur Epstein, Distinguished University Professor of chemistry and physics and director of Ohio State's Institute for Magnetic and Electronic Polymer. "We're very excited about where this kind of development can take us."

(Read the Research News story by Pam Frost Gorder)