There's a known rule-breaker among materials, and a new discovery by an international team of scientists adds more evidence to back up the metal's nonconformist reputation. According to a new study led by scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and at the University of California, Berkeley, electrons in vanadium dioxide can conduct electricity without conducting heat.

(Phys.org)-The hydrophobic effect is a fundamental aspect of biochemical processes. Hydrophilic, or water-loving, solutes tend to be miscible in water, while hydrophobic, or water-fearing, solutes tend to aggregate in such a way as to minimize the number of water-solute interactions.

Colorado State University engineers offer a potential solution: A specially grown, "superhemophobic" titanium surface that's extremely repellent to blood. The material could form the basis for surgical implants with lower risk of rejection by the body.

It's an outside-the-box innovation achieved at the intersection of two disciplines: biomedical engineering and materials science. The work, recently published in Advanced Healthcare Materials, is a collaboration between the labs of Arun Kota, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering; and Ketul Popat, associate professor in the same departments.

Kota, an expert in novel, "superomniphobic" materials that repel virtually any liquid, joined forces with Popat, an innovator in tissue engineering and bio-compatible materials. Starting with sheets of titanium, commonly used for medical devices, their labs grew chemically altered surfaces that act as perfect barriers between the titanium and blood. Their teams conducted experiments showing very low levels of platelet adhesion, a biological process that leads to blood clotting and eventual rejection of a foreign material.

Superamphiphobic surfaces, being both superhydrophobic and superoleophobic, are much more desirable than those being super-repellent only to either water or oil. Superamphiphobic surfaces show a number of applications in self-cleaning, antifouling, non-staining surfaces, spill-resistant, personal protection, drag reduction, corrosion prevention, and liquid separation. Several techniques to fabricate superamphiphobic surfaces have been developed in the last years, whereby single-step, wet-chemical processes, such as dipcoating and spraying, are of particular interest owing to the great convenience for large scale manufacturing.

Most of the existing wet-chemical coating systems for superamphiphobic treatment, however, use organic solvents. The use of organic solvents is prone to cause safety issues and increases environmental pollution. Due to higher safety levels when working with organics solvent, the production cost increase as well. Therefore, water-borne coating systems for superamphiphobic treatment are highly desirable, but from a chemical point of view remain rather difficult to make.

Some insect bodies have evolved the abilities to repel water and oil, adhere to different surfaces, and eliminate light reflections. Scientists have been studying the physical mechanisms underlying these remarkable properties found in nature and mimicking them to design materials for use in everyday life.

Several years ago, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory developed a nanoscale surface-texturing method for imparting complete water repellency to materials--a property inspired by insect exoskeletons that have tiny hairs designed to repel water by trapping air. Their method leverages the ability of materials called block copolymers (chains of two distinct molecules linked together) to self-assemble into ordered patterns with dimensions measuring only tens of nanometers in size. The scientists used these self-assembled patterns to create nanoscale textures in a variety of inorganic materials, including silicon, glass, and some plastics. Initially, they studied how changing the shape of the textures from cylindrical to conical impacted materials' ability to repel water. Cone-shaped nanotextures proved much better at forcing water droplets to roll off, carrying dirt particles away and leaving surfaces completely dry.

Sarbajit Banerjee et al. from Texas A&M University developed a robust inorganic system capable of handling the extreme heat and wear typical of oil extraction  that engineers complete separation of water and oil. Utilizing a stainless steel mesh substrate embedded with ceramic ZnO tetrapods that constitute "spike strips", a highly textured surface is obtained that strongly repels water but allows for permeation of oil.

A new development could enable businesses to transport objects remotely using adhesive material controlled by light.

Scientists from Kiel University are researching how to artificially create an adhesive mechanism after succeeding in developing a bioinspired adhesive material that can be controlled remotely by using a UV light.

The science group developed an elastic porous material-liquid crystal elastomer-that bends when illuminated with UV light because of its special molecular structure. This advancement could be utilized in robotics and medical technology. The research also could be used when building sensitive sensors or micro computer chips.

Emre Kizilkan, of the Functional Morphology and Biomechanics research group at the Zoological Institute, explained how the adhesive material was developed.

"Due to their structures, porous materials can be very easily incorporated to other materials," Kizilkan said in a statement. "So we tested what happens when we combined the elastic material, which reacts well to light, with a bioinspired material that has good adhesive properties."

The surface of the material consists of mushroom-shaped adhesive microstructures, similar to those on a type of beetle.