SLIKS: Materials and Methods to
Prepare Hydrophilic, yet Slippery Surfaces

Solid Liquid Interface to the level of Hydrophilicity and Liquid Mobility

Opportunity

Available for Licensing

IP Status

US Utility Patent Pending

Inventors

Arun Kota
Hamed Vahabi

At A Glance
  • A hydrophilic AND slippery surface
  • Typical hydrophilic surfaces display very high solid-liquid adhesion, but no mobility of the liquid on the surface
  • Applications in contact lenses, heat transfer, and biomedical protein desorption

 

Licensing Director

Mandana Ashouri
Mandana.Ashouri@colostate.edu
970-491-7100

Reference No.: 18-002

Background

There have been many strategies to prepare slippery surfaces: Making the surface hydrophobic (liquid beads up on the surface), lubricating the surface, or covalently bonding hydrophobic brushes to the surface. However, none of these surfaces are hydrophilic. Such hydrophilic slippery surfaces have significant potential applications in enhanced condensation and boiling heat transfer, reduced protein adsorption, and improved contact lens comfort.

 

Technology Overview

Engineering a solid-liquid interface to the level of hydrophilicity and liquid mobility (i.e. slipperiness) has never been done before. Such a combination allows contacting liquids to spread across the surface, have a high affinity between the surface and the liquid, AND allow liquids to slide on the surface.

Benefits
  • Significantly higher condensation heat transfer coefficient
  • Significant increase in the rate of colloidal nanoparticle desorption compared to conventional superhydrophilic surfaces
  • Significantly improves long term comfort of contact lenses through:
    • Preventing de-wetting of the tear film without altering oxygen permeability
    • Greatly increasing mobility of the tear film

Last updated on October 7, 2019.