Building a Better Raincoat

With winter really kicking in, a lot of people's thoughts are turning to putting the heating on, eating more toast or working out what possessions they don't need and will burn most effectively. However, at the University of Zurich, researchers' thoughts have turned to something subtly different, much less flammable and much, much more useful: the perfect raincoat.

The team, led by Stefan Seeger, have developed a fabric made from polyester fibres and coated with countless tiny silicone filaments. These nanofilaments are chemically designed to repel water. The 'spikes' of the filaments, each no more than 4-nanometres wide, combine with a surface repel water to ensure that water hitting the material is actively repelled by it, droplets forming into spheres that can be rolled off the surface by tilting it as little as two degrees. Simply put, the garment cannot be made to stay wet, even if a fire hose is trained on it. ( So how will you wash it? - SFX )

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