Penguins swim in some of the world ’s coldest waters , yet their plume supervise to remain ice - liberal . Now , investigator do work with Humboldt penguin plume reveal that their anti - frosting and anti - icing properties are create by microscopical structures that beat back the coolest and tiniest of water droplet . The findings are publish inJournal of Physical Chemistry Cthis week .
Humboldt penguins , Spheniscus humboldti , live from the coast of Peru all the way to the tip of southerly Chile . The temperature in some of these places drop down to -10 ° C ( 14 ° farad ) in the winter , and the urine they drown in is part of a moth-eaten ocean current from the Atlantic that ’s always less than 0 ° cytosine ( 32 ° F ) . Their thick bed of plumage prevents the frigid saltwater from diffuse down to their skin , and because they ’re such fast swimmers , we used to retrieve that water would slide off before it could freeze . But even superhydrophobic ( or extremely body of water repellent ) aerofoil can get icy under high humidness or radical - low temperatures .
To investigate , Beihang University ’s Jingming Wang and colleagues collect up body feathers of Humboldt penguins from Beijing Pacific Underwater World , burn them up into trivial hearty pieces , and then examined them using a scanning electron microscope .
The plumage , the team found , have splendid hydrophobic and anti - adhesion characteristics – even against supercooled water microdroplets . They ’re make up of boisterous , hierarchical , tiny structures that trap atmosphere to prevent water from adhering and coalescing . These micro- and nanostructures let in a web of barbs , luxuriant wrinkles on barbules projecting off the barb , tiny interlocking hook called hamuli on the barbules , and also specially oriented , 100 - micromillimetre - mysterious grooves on the dig ( see image below ) .
inspire by the feather ’ icephobic structure , the squad developed an artificial replication : a polyimide nanofiber membrane with air - infused hierarchal rough structures . Their material was less icephobic than penguin feathers in test , but with some adjustments , it could be spray with supercooled water droplet at an environmental temperature of -5 ° C ( 23 ° degree Fahrenheit ) for up to four hours without hoarfrost or ice forming . The team suppose this ice - proof material could someday have applications such aselectrical insulation .
Hierarchical micro- and nanostructures . 2016 American Chemical Society
