Chunlei
GUO, et al.
Superhydrophobic Metallic Tubes
Superhydrophobic Metallic Tubes
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202526033?__cf_chl_tk=xD2lpqQfe.EY3x1yYGEgh0QGUvfJ0EMmU8GnuqD00S4-1781843484-1.0.1.1-Ma4eMYdNccc4kbM3WJ4sLQ9T5jPgKeCGvQE5BH5RZWE
Geometry-Enabled Recoverable Floating Superhydrophobic Metallic Tubes
Tianshu Xu, et al.
ABSTRACT -- Biomimetic water-repellent superhydrophobic (SH) self-floating devices have promised a wide range of applications. However, current SH floaters are usually only capable of being used in small-sized devices due to their lack of mechanical strength and resistance to environmental stress, making them prone to damage. In this work, we demonstrate a metallic SH tube with a reliable underwater buoyancy, high adaptability to violent environments, and strong resistance to mechanical abrasion and structural damage. The remarkable floating ability comes from stable air trapped inside the tube. Besides being able to float back to the surface even after being fully forced into water, the SH tube can also maintain buoyancy under severe tilting, water impact, and even under severe structural damage. The SH tubes assembly can be used to construct large vessels, watercrafts, floating platforms, and buoys for marine applications. As an example, we demonstrate a floating SH electrical energy generator to harvest ocean tidal energy.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260130041105.htm#google_vignette
A breakthrough that could make ships nearly unsinkable
More than a century after the Titanic, the dream of unsinkable ships is still alive, and scientists may be closer than ever.Researchers have found a way to make ordinary aluminum tubes float indefinitely, even when submerged for long periods or punched full of holes. By engineering the metal’s surface to repel water, the tubes trap air inside and refuse to sink, even in rough conditions. The technology could eventually be scaled up into floating platforms, ships, or even wave-powered energy systems...
The work was led by Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics and a senior scientist at URochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Guo and his colleagues detailed the new method in a study published in Advanced Functional Materials. Their approach focuses on modifying the inside surface of aluminum tubes by etching it to create microscopic and nanoscale pits. This textured surface becomes superhydrophobic, allowing it to strongly repel water and remain dry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGpOkQ_6iT8
New Study: How to Make Ships Unsinkable! // German Science Guy
With this new material, we could generate energy directly from the ocean and make ships unsinkable! More than 100 years after the Titanic, researchers have now modified metal so that it no longer sinks, even when severely damaged. They’ve done this by making it water-repellent. This could completely revolutionize shipping, coastal protection, and offshore energy supply. But it could also be used to generate energy directly from ocean waves...
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202526033
Geometry-Enabled Recoverable Floating Superhydrophobic Metallic Tubes
Tianshu Xu, et al.
ABSTRACT -- Biomimetic water-repellent superhydrophobic (SH) self-floating devices have promised a wide range of applications. However, current SH floaters are usually only capable of being used in small-sized devices due to their lack of mechanical strength and resistance to environmental stress, making them prone to damage. In this work, we demonstrate a metallic SH tube with a reliable underwater buoyancy, high adaptability to violent environments, and strong resistance to mechanical abrasion and structural damage. The remarkable floating ability comes from stable air trapped inside the tube. Besides being able to float back to the surface even after being fully forced into water, the SH tube can also maintain buoyancy under severe tilting, water impact, and even under severe structural damage. The SH tubes assembly can be used to construct large vessels, watercrafts, floating platforms, and buoys for marine applications. As an example, we demonstrate a floating SH electrical energy generator to harvest ocean tidal energy.
https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/unsinkable-metal-tubes-superhydrophobic-surfaces-691642/
Scientists engineer unsinkable metal tubes
The superhydrophobic design could lead to resilient ships, floating platforms, and renewable energy innovations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPGiJY-xJw4
Creating Unsinkable Metal // University of Rochester
Scientists engineer unsinkable metal tubes
...Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics and senior scientist at URochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and his team describe their process for creating aluminum tubes with remarkable floating abilities in a study published in Advanced Functional Materials. By etching the interior of aluminum tubes, the researchers create micro- and nano-pits on the surface that turns it superhydrophobic, repelling water and staying dry.
When the treated tube enters water, the superhydrophobic surface traps a stable bubble of air inside the tube and prevents the tube from getting waterlogged and sinking, in a similar way that diving bell spiders trap an air bubble to stay buoyant underwater or fire ants to form floating rafts with their hydrophobic bodies.
“Importantly, we added a divider to the middle of the tube so that even if you push it vertically into the water, the bubble of air remains trapped inside and the tube retains its floating ability,” says Guo.
Guo and his lab first demonstrated superhydrophobic floating devices in 2019, featuring two superhydrophobic disks that were sealed together to create their buoyancy. But the current tube design simplifies and improves the technology in several key areas. The disks that the researchers previously developed could lose their ability to float when turned at extreme angles, but the tubes are resilient against turbulent conditions like those found at sea.
“We tested them in some really rough environments for weeks at a time and found no degradation to their buoyancy,” says Guo. “You can poke big holes in them, and we showed that even if you severely damage the tubes with as many holes as you can punch, they still float.”
Multiple tubes can be linked together to create rafts that could be the basis for ships, buoys, and floating platforms. In lab experiments, the team tested the design using tubes of varying lengths, up to almost half a meter, and Guo says the technology could be easily scaled to the larger sizes needed for load-bearing floating devices.
The researchers also showed how rafts made from superhydrophobic tubes could be used to harvest water waves to generate electricity, offering a promising renewable energy application.
US2019319152 // US2015136226 -- SUPER-HYDROPHOBIC SURFACES AND METHODS FOR PRODUCING SUPER-HYDROPHOBIC SURFACES
A metal or metal alloy including a region with hierarchical micro-scale and nano-scale structure shapes, the surface region is super-hydrophobic and has a spectral reflectance of less than 30% for at least some wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation in the range of 0.1 μm to 10 μm. Methods for forming the hierarchical micro-scale and nano-scale structure shapes on the metal or metal alloy are also described.
US10876193 -- Methods for making a material superwicking and/or superwetting
(superhydrophyllic) involving creating one or more indentations in the surface of the material that have a micro-rough surface of protrusions, cavities, spheres, rods, or other irregularly shaped features having heights and/or widths on the order of 0.5 to 100 microns and the micro-rough surface having a nano-rough surface of protrusions, cavities, spheres, rods, and other irregularly shaped features having heights and/or widths on the order of 1 to 500 nanometers. Superwicking and/or superwetting materials having micro-rough and nano-rough surface indentations, including metals, glass, enamel, polymers, semiconductors, and others.