Imagine playing rugby in the rain, and finishing the match to find your kit is both dry and sparklingly clean. This may sound far fetched, but could be possible in the future thanks to butterflies and researchers in China.
A team of researchers led by Lei Jiang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, have discovered how blue Morpho butterflies (Morpho aega) keep their wings clean and dry. Jiang hopes this finding can be applied to self-cleaning fabric coatings.
These tropical butterflies from Central and South America have very fine scales on the surface of their wings. Jiang found that the wings can react differently to water depending on the direction the wing is pointing. As the butterfly tips its wing downwards in flight, droplets of water roll away from the body carrying dust and dirt with them. As the butterfly wing is tipped upwards the direction of the scales prevents the droplet from moving towards the butterfly’s body.
Jiang has discovered a new feature for self-cleaning surfaces, said Ivan Parkin of University College London, an expert in materials chemistry. However, Parkin is unsure how this surface could be manufactured on a large scale, adding that ‘harvesting butterflies would not be an ideal method!’
Nina Athey-Pollard
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