Mark Shaw, inventor and president of UltraTech International, Inc., recently spoke to a TED audience about his company’s newest product — Ultra Ever Dry — a "superhydrophobic" coating that acts as a shield against water and water-based materials. "Hydrophobic" essentially means "water repelling."

 

Spraying a material with superhydrophobic nano-particles, like the ones present in Ultra EverDry, creates a rough surface, full of tiny spaces between particles. And these interstitial spaces, along with the nanoparticles themselves, “reach up and grab” air particles, according to Shaw. The coating creates an “umbrella of air” across the surface of a material that water cannot penetrate.