Friend of water, enemy of water

2005/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Materialak
• Kimika

The image shows a sponge in two different situations. On the left it has warmed up to 390ºC and cooled again, so the sponge material is hydrophobic, that is, a drop of water does not wet the sponge. On the right, on the contrary, the sponge has warmed above 400ºC and then cooled and the behavior of the material is completely different, the material has become hydrophilic and the water easily expands into the sponge. This material has been manufactured at the University of Nottingham, England, and they consider that the materials they behave could be used to produce temperature sensors.