Super-slippery material could mean end to having to wait for ketchup - VIDEO

A super-slippery material that causes water, oil and even jam to slide off without leaving any residue could mean an end to fighting to get sauce out of ketchup bottles.

You may never have to fight to get the last drops of sauce out of the ketchup bottle ever again.

Scientists have created one of the most slippery materials ever made after copying the leaves from a carnivorous plant.

Their research promises to result in new self-cleaning surfaces that never get dirty and could even be used to coat the inside of bottles and jars to help consumers get all of the food inside.

Anyone who is partial to some tomato sauce with their food will know how difficult it is to get the final dregs from ketchup bottles and it even led to manufacturer Heinz advertising its sauce with the slogan "Good things come to those who wait".

The new material, however, repels both water and oil based liquids, meaning condiments such as tomato ketchup or jam slide off it easily without leaving any residue.

Professor Joanna Aizenberg, a materials scientists at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said: "It is a problem we all face – we have a bottle of sauce and we are trying to get the last bit out but nothing is happening.

"If we used substance like ours to coat the inside of bottles, it would be possible to get it all out.

"The only problem may be that the sauce may come out a little too easily on to their food."

Professor Aizenberg and her colleagues were inspired by the carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants, which has a highly slippery surface at the top of its flute-shaped leaves so that insects tumble down into the digestive juices contained inside.

They found that the plant's leaves have a spongelike texture that are infused with water, which repels the sticky oils that are produced by insects' feet.

The scientists, whose research is published in the scientific journal Nature, immobilised a "lubricating film" inside the pores of a spongelike layer of Teflon to produce a smooth and highly slippery surface.

By carefully selecting the lubricating film, the substance chemically repelled other liquids. The result can be compared to the effect of bringing together the poles of two magnets.

The new material, known as a Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surface, or SLIPS for short, boasts a rare trait called "omniphobicity", which means it can repel both water and oily materials.

Experiments conducted by the scientists showed the material shedding a range of liquids including blood, water, crude oil and jam. Ants were even unable to walk up samples of the super-slip material.

Professor Aizenberg added: "The lubricating film is locked in place so it does not mix with liquids placed on the surface. By carefully selecting the lubricant we impregnate the pores with, it means we can repel a broad spectrum of liquids.

"There are a lot of potential applications for this, but among the ones I am most excited about are use in the energy industry for making oil flow more efficiently through pipes for example.

"It also repels ice and so is not prone to icing up, which would be ideal on aircraft wings or in industrial freezer units. We could use it as an anti-graffiti surface, so paint sprayed onto a wall would just slide off."


/The Telegraph/

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