Coatings already exist to help food, but not soap, pour out of their containers. Surfactants—the organic molecules that make soap “soapy”— have a very low surface tension and stick to plastic easily.
Researchers have now found a way to create the perfect texture inside plastic bottles to let soap products flow freely. The technique involves lining a plastic bottle with microscopic y-shaped structures that cradle the droplets of soap aloft above tiny air pockets, so that the soap never actually touches the inside of the bottle. The structures are only a few micrometers high, and covered in even smaller branchlike projections (News Item The Ohio State University, 26 June 2016).
Click here for the news item.
Click here for a video about the research.
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24 August 2016