Functional Surface Finishing Inspired by Plants and Insects

Innovation: Industry

Fusion Bionic

Protect From Microbes

In living systems, microbes play important roles, such as breaking down organic matter and maintaining personal and system health. But they also pose threats. Bacteria can be pathogens that cause diseases. Some bacteria create colonies called biofilms that can coat surfaces, reducing their effectiveness–for example, inhibiting a leaf’s ability to photosynthesize. Living systems must have strategies for protecting from microbes that cause disease or become so numerous that they create an imbalance in the system. At the same time, living systems must continue living in harmony with other microbes. Some living systems kill microbes. Others repel without killing to reduce the chances that microbes will adapt to the lethal strategy and become resistant to it. For example, some pea seedlings exude a chemical that inhibits biofilm buildup.

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Protect From Excess Liquids

While water is essential to life, too much water or other liquids can overwhelm living systems. Excess liquids can, for example, decrease a living system’s access to oxygen, promote excessive bacterial or fungal growth, or strip away soil and nutrients. To prevent the accumulation of excess liquids, living systems must control the movement of liquids across their boundaries or surfaces. They do so using waterproofing materials or structures, slowing flow, and/or facilitating flow to move the liquid away. Plant leaves, for example, commonly have waxy surfaces comprised of water-repelling chemicals to keep water from engorging the leaves or facilitating bacterial and fungal growth.

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Protect From Chemicals

Chemicals are everywhere in the bodies of living organisms and their external environments. While most chemicals are valuable or benign, some are toxic, including those used for defense (such as the mucus that protects clownfish from an anemone’s stinging tentacles). Even naturally-occurring chemicals, such as arsenic, must be managed to reduce their impact. Some living systems have strategies to break down harmful chemicals, alter them into less toxic forms, physically prevent chemicals from harming sensitive tissues, and more. For example, some herbivorous mammals can digest toxic compounds in plants because they have a particular enzyme that helps them process poisonous plant compounds.

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Protect From Dirt/solids

When dirt and other small solids adhere to living systems, they can slow them down, create blockages, reduce their ability to carry out vital functions, or cause surface wear and tear. Due to electrostatic forces, it’s easy for dirt and other solids to adhere to surfaces, so living systems must overcome those forces. An earthworm, for example, uses a small electric current to keep soil particles from adhering to its body as it moves through the soil. This enables it to move more efficiently by reducing drag.

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Protect From Light

Access to sunlight is crucial to living systems because it’s the primary energy source for life. However, too much sunlight in the form of ultraviolet radiation (UV) can cause damage to living tissues. Therefore, living systems have strategies to filter out some or all UV radiation. For example, some plants that live in areas exposed to long periods of direct sunlight have reflective surfaces (such as white hairs or powder) that reflect UV light.

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Fusion Bionic uses laser interference patterns to efficiently produce micro and nano textures on a wide variety of materials.

Benefits

Reduced material consumption
Produce color without paints or dyes
Reduce glare without toxins
Smooth or roughen a surface without sandblasting
Protect from water without coatings
Sanitize without toxins

Applications

Solar panels
Architecture
Vehicles
Furniture

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 6: Clean Water & Sanitation
Goal 7: Affordable & Clean Energy
Goal 9: Industry Innovation & Infrastructure
Goal 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities
Goal 12: Responsible Production & Consumption

The Challenge

Zoom into a lotus leaf, a butterfly’s wing, or a moth’s eye and you’ll see intricate arrays of extremely tiny bumps, precisely positioned to repel water, dirt, or bacteria––or even to provide color or to better absorb light––without the organism having to expend any additional energy. Humans often achieve these qualities through the use of toxic chemicals or large amounts of water or other resources. Laser etching and other machining techniques have allowed humans to create similar nano textures that impart function directly onto surfaces, but they are slow and energy-intensive, and difficult to use at scale.

Innovation Details

Scientists at Fusion Bionic have found an extremely efficient way of nano-texturing surfaces by harnessing the properties of light itself. Instead of using a laser beam like a knife to etch a surface line by line, they control the interference pattern of multiple sub-beams to use like a stamp to produce a complete texture all at once. They call this “Direct Laser Interference Patterning (DLIP)”. This technique can efficiently produce functional textures, mimicking nature’s surfaces, and replace costly traditional methods of finishing surfaces.

In DLIP, laser beams are combined in a controlled manner to create a defined interference pattern within the processing area. The pattern produced is much smaller than the laser beam itself with typical resolutions in the range of 300 nm up to 30 μm. Due to the interference effect, areas of high intensity (interference maxima) and zero intensity (interference minimums) are present within the laser beam. During machining, the material surface is only modified at the intensity maximums, the remaining areas remain unaffected.

The patterns created with Fusion Bionic’s DLIP technology can be transferred to almost all materials, from metals and polymers to ceramics, coatings, and glass.

Biological Model

Zoom into a lotus leaf, a butterfly’s wing, or a moth’s eye and you’ll see intricate arrays of extremely tiny bumps—precisely positioned to repel water, dirt, or bacteria—or even to better absorb light––without the organism having to expend any additional energy.

Lotus leaves are covered with rows and rows of nanoscale pillars—each about 400 times thinner than a strand of human hair. Water landing on these bumpy surfaces has no flat surface to stick to. Instead, the molecules stick to one another, forming droplets that slide off, flushing along dirt particles and contaminants with them.

Other organisms use similar texturing for the opposite effect: When light hits the eyes of moths, it doesn’t bounce off the intricate nanopillared surfaces at all. Instead, the waves get trapped and absorbed in the gradually narrowing spaces between nanopillars, creating a naturally anti-reflective surface.

See Related Strategies

Biological Strategy

Surface Allows Self-Cleaning

Sacred lotus

Leaves of the sacred lotus are self-cleaning thanks to hydrophobic microscale bumps.

an elephant hawk-moth photographed head on with its bring pink lower body and yellow top, long legs and big yellow eyes

Biological Strategy

Eyes Are Anti-Reflective

Moths

Eyes of nocturnal moths are anti-reflective due to nanoscale protrusions.

Ray of Hope Prize®

The Ray of Hope Prize celebrates nature-inspired solutions addressing the world’s biggest environmental and sustainability challenges. Created in honor of Ray C. Anderson, founder of Interface, Inc. and a business and sustainability leader, the $100,000 Ray of Hope Prize helps startups cross a critical threshold in becoming viable businesses by amplifying their stories and providing them with equity-free funding. The prize shines a light on the innovative, nature-inspired solutions that we need to build a sustainable and resilient world. Fusion Bionic was selected as a finalist for the 2022 Ray of Hope Prize.

See All Ray of Hope Prize Finalists

Sun rays filter through the forest canopy and shine upon a rocky creek

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AskNature Team

The Ray of Hope Accelerator supports nature-inspired solutions addressing the world's biggest environmental and social challenges.

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