Nokia working on Superhydrophobic coating to keep your phones dry

Don’t you just hate it when you accidentally place your phone in a patch of water, or if you accidentally drop it into the toilet bowl or a sink and it gets all wet, and in some cases it stops working entirely? Well the good news for you is that Nokia is currently researching ways to help ensure that your device will be able to repel water through the use of Superhydrophobic coating, a coating that was inspired by the lotus leaf whereby water simply falls, bounces and rolls away without a trace, leaving the leaf clean and water repellent.

If you’re wondering why Superhydrophobic sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a higher level of hydrophobic coating that can be found on Teflon non-stick frying pans, with the main difference being that a Superhydrophobic coating ensures that water never reaches the surface thanks to the use of a nanostructure that traps a layer of air over the surface. On top of that, the Superhydrophobic coating is also expected to help prevent against fingerprint smudges and antireflection.

According to the team at the Nokia NRC in Cambridge, they are pretty close to perfecting a robust exterior Superhydrophobic coating, so if anything, it looks like Nokia’s future devices could be water repellent, although they have suggested that perhaps going on a deep sea dive with your phone unprotected might be pushing the boundaries a little bit. For more information and the video demonstration, pop on over to Nokia’s website.