"Superomniphobic" Nanoscale Coating Repels Almost Any Liquid

Every x months for the past 5 years I hear about some new super-coating that repels dirt, water, oil etc.. Every time I'm like, "cool, when will it come standard on new cars?" I hate having to wash my car every few days (it's parked outside) or it starts looking like crap.

I suppose when I get a flying car, that's when I'll finally see this miracle coating in action.

Posting anonymously because of a personal connection to research some of these materials, but I think it's worth it to quickly clear up a few uncertainties I see in the comments already posted:

1) The reason you don't see this stuff all over is that these materials are expensive and usually not durable. Nanoscale patterns can be created through a variety of approaches, some of which are a bit more complicated but can repair or recreate their surface patterns after abrasion. As you might expect, the materials that can recreate their surface patterns tend to be on the more expensive end of the scale.

2) The past 5 years have seen major progress in *phobic materials. We're getting closer to cost effective, more durability, and even better phobicity, but we're still not there.

3) Superhydrophobic isn't the same as omniphobic. Generally surfaces will either have a high contact angle with water OR with nonpolar liquids. Superhydrophobic means the contact between a droplet of water and the material will be extremely small. Omniphobic means the surface repels both polar and nonpolar liquids.

4) Nanoscale patterning of a surface can also lead to superhydrophilicity, the opposite of superhydrophobicity. The mechanism for this isn't fully understood.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/PFprwK1kz4s/story01.htm

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