Splashes & Spills - No Worries!

Has your phone ever been splashed with water or other liquids? If so, the reaction to this is always one of dread, as smartphones are not designed to mix with water in any of its forms.

There are many solutions out there that aim to prevent phones from a watery grave. For example, putting the device in a bowl of rice, but these methods are optimistic at best and in most cases the end result is still not good.

Smartphones have become such an important part of our everyday lives that there are very few scenarios left where phones do not accompany us. In fact, in a recent survey, 19% of people interviewed admitted to having dropped their phones down the toilet!

All is not lost though, as protection from water damage is now available in the form of the Alcatel ONE TOUCH 997 Ultra smartphone.

The 997 Ultra repels water

Understanding the role smartphones play in today's society, Alcatel have teamed up with P2i to offer consumers a completely water repellent phone and reduce the fears they have when phones and liquids meet. To do this, the ONE TOUCH 997 Ultra comes complete with our nano-coating technology which is applied to both the external and internal surfaces, ensuring total protection from water damaging effects. You can see how our coating is applied to smartphones below:

As the coating is incredibly thin (1000 times smaller than a human hair), it does not interfere with the internal electrical conductivity, allowing all components to be treated, leaving no weak points to attract water and cause corrosion. This is great piece of mind should the 997 Ultra come into contact with water.

When launching the onetouch 997 Ultra, Alcatel mobile's theme is 'No Worries' and with the benefits our water repellent nano-coating offers, the concerns over everyday splashes and spills, or being caught in the rain, are becoming a thing of the past.

You can watch the technology in action below in the official Alcatel video and if you would like to know more details about the 997 Ultra, you can here.

Splashes, spills and rain.... No worries with the ONE TOUCH 997 Ultra!

----

* The water repellent nano-coating applied by TCL, protects the internal components from water ingress and corrosion damage, caused by accidental splashes and spills. The coating is not a waterproof technology and TCL does not recommend that your phone comes into contact with liquids.

How waterproof are consumer electronics?

If you are a keen follower of consumer technology, then you will be aware that there has been a steady emergence over the past year of smartphones and tablets offered complete with 'waterproof' protection. But just how waterproof are these electronics?

Gadgets form an essential part of our everyday lives and there are few places left where our smartphones and tablets do not accompany us. More and more people are taking their electronics into potentially hazardous locations, for example the bathroom or even worse, saunas!

What you may not realize is that even if the device is left in a 'safe' spot, these environments still pose a risk. Water takes many forms such as vapour, mist and steam, all of which can penetrate inside devices. If there is no barrier against ingress, then the vapour or steam can reach internal components, resulting in corrosion and phone malfunctions.

This principle is more commonly understood when dealing with water in its normal form, liquid. Should a device fall into, or be splashed with liquid, without a protective barrier in place, the liquid can penetrate deep inside the device, resulting in electrochemical migration. We have discussed electrochemical migration in a previous post but here is a recap:

• Electrochemical migration is the movement of metal ions between conductors which results in devices short circuiting and failing.

Our everyday lives have resulted in a greater need for electronics that can withstand the effects of liquids in all their forms. This in turn has seen the latest smartphones and tablets being offered with a repellent or waterproof protection.

What makes electronics waterproof?

For an electronic device to be considered waterproof, it has to be either completely sealed and ruggedized (making them bulky), or alternatively it must have barriers in place that stop water from penetrating through. It is this second option that is proving more popular now, as it allows devices to offer protection from water without the need for external casings. In this approach, manufacturers use seals known as gaskets or O-rings to act as barriers, stopping liquids from penetrating inside the device and damaging the internal components.

So are they really waterproof?

This is an interesting question as devices can claim to be waterproof if they have barriers in place to keep water out, but what about the internal components themselves? Are they also protected should liquid manage to get inside?

The answer in the majority of cases is unfortunately NO. Sealing devices off does stop water from getting in but if the barrier is compromised, for example by a device being dropped, then the case, gaskets or O-rings protecting it can become damaged and break. This could allow water to seep  towards the circuit board and internal components, resulting in device failure and loss of data.

It just takes one break in the seal for water to get inside and if this does occur, it may not be noticed as seals are hidden away on the inside. So while we think our device is waterproof, a break in the seal will not become apparent until the phone is malfunctioning and by then it could be too late.

The importance of protecting the internal components

Knowing that waterproof devices are only as good as the seals and barriers that protect them, it is important that protection is also offered to the internal components as well. And this is where liquid repellent nano-coating technology comes in.

A liquid repellent nano-coating differs from a waterproof solution in that it is not a physical barrier, meaning that liquid can still penetrate inside the device. This, however, is not the end of the device's life. The nano-coating, which is applied in vapour form, molecularly bonds to both the inside and outside of the entire device, ensuring that each and every exposed surface is treated. What this means is that, although water can get inside the device, any liquid that does come into contact with components will simply move away from the surface, rather than sticking to it, resulting in reduced corrosion, electrochemical migration and failure.

While a nano-coating is not waterproof (it is not a physical barrier), it does protect from splashes and spills as well as less obvious 'wet' environments such as saunas, bathrooms and high humidity climates.

A waterproof device has many benefits for day to day life but if the barrier fails, the device becomes vulnerable. By applying a liquid repellent nano-coating to the internal components, protection is offered to the most valuable parts of electronic devices, where all our data, numbers and images are stored. Nano-coatings are not a waterproof solution but do offer protection against everyday scenarios and environments, we and our devices find ourselves exposed to.

If you would like to know more about our liquid repellent nano-coating do let us know in the comments below. You can also see how our repellent nano-coating is applied to electronics in the video below:

A Brief History of Nanotechnology: Part 3 - The 80s & 90s

In our last post we looked at some very early developments in nanotechnology, including the possible impact that Richard Feynman's 1959 lecture "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" may have had on later advances in the field. It was certainly an influence on Eric Drexler, "the undisputed godfather of nanotechnology", who encountered Feynman's talk in 1979.

The 1980s saw the real emergence of nanotechnology as a field of study. The publication of Drexler's seminal book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology in 1986 marked an important milestone for the field. In the book, Drexler (unknowingly) appropriated and popularised the term "nanotechnology" itself, which had been initially defined in a slightly different context in 1974 by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi as "the processing of, separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or by one molecule". In Engines of Creation, Drexler presented his idea of molecular manufacturing and the "molecular assembler": a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision". Drexler's 1992 book Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation, published after completion of his PhD at MIT (he earned the first doctoral degree on the topic of molecular nanotechnology) continued to build on these ideas.

The 1980s also saw other important advances, including the invention of the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) in 1981 and the discovery of fullerenes in 1985. The Scanning Tunnelling Microscope, developed by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Roher at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, allowed surfaces to be examined at the atomic level. In 1985, Harry Kroto, Richard Smalley and Robert Curl discovered fullerenes, sometimes called buckyballs - hollow molecules composed of carbon, which helped lead to the structural assignment of carbon nanotubes. These developments meant that "nanotechnology could develop through the scientific method rather than the conceptual and thus untestable visions of Drexler", and the field as we know it today - diverse and full of possibility - was born.

Next week we'll look at some of the debates and developments that have occurred in more recent years, and get a glimpse of where nanotechnology might be headed in the future.

You can find out more about our nano-coating technology here: www.p2i.com/technology

P2i Presents: The Repellent Files

You may be wondering what the title means. Well, here at P2i we are often asked what other products our technology could be applied to. And this is a question that is regularly brought up by people who have witnessed our tissue demonstration as well:

So this got us thinking and the idea of The Repellent Files were born.

So what are The Repellent Files?

Each week we will upload a new video to YouTube of a different, normally water absorbent item that has been treated with our liquid repellent nano-coating to see how well it copes when subjected to water or other liquids.

In our first file posted yesterday, we investigated whether a teabag, coated with our nanotechnology, could keep the water clear once boiling hot water was poured over it. To ensure it was an even test, we had a regular teabag available as well.

Want to know what happened? Well, have a watch of the video below and you can see the result for yourself:

The Verdict:

Thumbs Up! Although it is not very good if you want a cup of tea, but the test shows that our coating can stop a teabag acting as it should by successfully repelling the water around it.

If you have any suggestions for items that can be put to the test, do let us know. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube where we will be posting the next file.

Find out more about how our technology works by visiting: www.p2i.com/technology

A Brief History of Nanotechnology: Part 2 - Early Developments

In our first post, we looked at some surprisingly early examples of nanotechnology at work. However, the field is generally considered to be a very modern one, and most major early developments occurred within the latter half of the 20th century.
The history of nanotechnology is often traced to a very specific moment of inception: the 29th of December, 1959, when physicist Richard Feynman delivered an after-dinner lecture called "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" during a meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology.

Feynman's lecture predated the use of the term "nanotechnology" to describe the field of study as we now know it, but many of the ideas he explored and the questions he asked are still highly relevant.

Feynman wondered "why cannot we write the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the head of a pin?" and spoke of the possibility of building machines on a minute scale by "manoeuvring things atom by atom".

‘There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom’ writes Dr. K. Eric Drexler, whose own work in the 1970s and 80s did much to advance the field, "was a comparatively casual effort - an after-dinner speech at a conference - yet in it he presented a bold and enduring vision of a technological journey leading toward the atomic scale and toward the ultimate boundaries set by physical law. The world has travelled far toward what Feynman saw, and has far still to go."

It's hard to measure the exact impact that Feynman's talk had on the emergence of nanotechnology, of course, but, as Drexler points out, "Feynman was the first to outline a world of technologies that would work and build at the ultimate, atomic scale".

The term "nanotechnology" itself wasn't coined until 1974, when Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi defined it: "'Nano-technology' mainly consists of the processing of, separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or by one molecule’.' Taniguchi used the term "to describe semiconductor processes such as thin film deposition and ion beam milling exhibiting characteristic control on the order of a nanometer. The ideas contained in this definition were further explored and developed by Drexler in the late 70s and 1980s, culminating in the release of his book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology in 1986, which "is considered the first book on the topic of nanotechnology".

In next weeks post we will take a closer look at these ideas and how they developed.

Returning from Mobile World Congress 2012

Having attended Mobile World Congress (MWC) for the first time last year we returned to Barcelona bigger and better.

Our booth at MWC 2012

With such a great show in 2011 we hoped that this year would bring similar results and we were not wrong, in fact the the buzz and coverage we recieved surpassed all our expectations.

Before MWC officially kicked off we attended ShowStoppers, a media only event that allowed us to demonstrate our Aridion™ technology to media and journalists from around the world as well as answering any questions they had. Over the course of the day we were interviewed by leading technology sites including Mashable and BBC Technology.

MWC which ran from the 27th February to the 1st March, the pattern continued as we carried out almost hourly interviews and demonstrations and you can see a collection of these interviews and videos by liking our Facebook page and clicking the links. We were also the topic of conversation for many podcast sites and you can listen to The Fonecast interview with our CTO, Dr. Stephen Coulson here and clicking on the Electronics tab.

In addition to this, MWC was also the venue to announce the winner of the Smart UK Project award. The Project was set up to find Britain's most innovative mobile company and despite not winning the award we were delighted to be a finalist from 79 initial company entries. You can watch the summary of the Smart UK Project awards here.

The show was a great success and you can see some of the images from our booth below:

Hannibal our magician performs to the crowd

The team

If you have any questions about our Aridion technology and how it protects your electronics from water damage, you can email us at info@p2i.com.

Next up for us is AudiologyNOW! in Boston.

ion-mask™ heads to ISPO

After a very successful International CES our focus now turns to showcasing our ion-mask™ technology at the 2012 ISPO tradeshow in Munich, Germany.

ISPO which takes place from the 29th January - 1st February is considered the leading international sports business network with around 2,000 exhibitors and over 60,000 delegates from more than 100 countries.

Last July we attended a similar show; the EU OutDoor show in Friedrichshafen where we demonstrated the game changing benefits that ion-mask™ can offer to footwear, textiles and accessories and you can see how we got on in the video below:

Come and see the technology for yourself!

At ISPO 2012 we will be located in Hall B6, Booth 122 where we will again be highlighting our world leading ion-mask™ technology via videos and hands-on demonstrations of treated and untreated footwear, tissues and fabrics.

ion-mask™ has already been adopted by leading lifestyle brands including: Timberland, KSwiss, Hi-Tec, adidas, Van Dal, Scott, Teva, Fox gloves and Bollman Hats to name a few. Attending ISPO is an opportunity to further expand the range of products that ion-mask™ protects. You can see a collection of videos featuring ion-mask™ here.

Throughout the show we will be uploading images and posting comments live from the booth so do 'Like' us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to be kept up to date.

See you there!

CES validates P2i as liquid repellent world leader

In January last year we attended International CES in Las Vegas where we showcased Aridion™, our liquid repellent technology for consumer electronic devices and you can read how we got on here.

For 2012 we went back to CES with an even bigger booth and a major electronic manufacturer incorporating Aridion™ into their production process.

International CES, which took place from the 10th-13th January is the world's largest tradeshow for consumer electronics as well as a showcase for the latest technologies. The 2012 event was the largest in it's 44 year history with over 153,000 attendees and more than 3,100 exhibitors gathering to see the latest technological developments.

Throughout the four days our booth maintained a continous flow of delegates keen to see a demonstration of Aridion™ technology as well as discovering how it can protect electronic devices from liquid damage and corrosion. What was also great is that many delegates who visited us last year came back to our booth, this time bringing a crowd with them interested to see the technology first hand.

Images from our booth over the four days

While the booth was busy with delegates, our technology was also picked up by a host of media and like last year, we receieved a great deal of press coverage from all kinds of sources including; PC World, Gadgetsteria, PC Advisor, Gagagadget, Nerd Reactor, Mobile Magazine, EBN News and Fox News to name but a few! There are also video features still to be posted from popular technology sites including Tech Bargins. These will be promoted on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts once live.

The combination of media coverage, a consistantly busy booth and Hannibal, our corporate magician entertaining the crowds, once again made CES a great success for us and validated our position as the world leaders in liquid repellent nano-coating technology for consumer electronics. We are now in further discussions with leading electronic brands about applying Aridion™ to a new range of consumer devices so watch this space.

You can see a collection of our images here as well as watching a short video we have put together showing some of the highlights from our booth:

You can find out more about Aridion™ by visiting: www.p2i.com/electronics and if you have any questions about how Aridion™ works do get in contact by commenting below.

P2i

The difference between water resistant and repellent technologies

We recently came across the EMU Australia footwear brand who produce and sell a great range of sheepskin boots around the world but what caught our attention was the following banner on their website:

It is a great visual image that really states the fact that their boots are water resistant. Exploring the site further, EMU have also produced a video showcasing their water resistant sheepskin against a competing UGG boot. You can see the video below:



Before watching the video we initially thought that it was our technology, as the EMU video is similar to a version that we produced back in 2009 that focused on our ion-mask™ water repellent technology (see further down). In the EMU video, they demonstrate the difference between their water resistant sheepskin boot and that of a standard UGG boot. You can clearly see a distinction between the two as the water uptake is significantly reduced on EMU's water resistant sheepskin while the UGG boot completely absorbs the water leading to a stained, heavy and uncomfortable boot.

However, even though the water resistance does keep the EMU boot from absorbing the water, if you look closely you can clearly see that there is a layer of water that remains on the boot once it is pulled out, giving it a shiny but wet look. Over time, this could potentially damage the surface, resulting in the absorption of water and eventual staining. This is when we realized that it was not our technology and that ion-mask™ could be a great solution.

Why ion-mask™?

Earlier, we mentioned a video we produced back in 2009 which carried out the same test as EMU demonstrate above but showcases our liquid repellent nano-coating technology. Although the boots in our demo are made from suede and not sheepskin the principles are the same:



The ion-mask™ treated boot completely repels the water by ensuring the water beads up and rolls off the boot leaving no layer or residue, which can occur with water resistant boots. The untreated version absorbs the water the instant it is submerged. We have also carried out this test using sheepskin boots and you can see the result in the following image:

ion-mask™ treated (Left) / Untreated (Right)

Again, the repellent benefits of ion-mask™ act as an invisible shield forcing the water to bead up and roll off while the untreated version is completed soaked. Adding ion-mask™ to sheepskin boots means total liquid repellency without any leftover layers or streaks that is visible with only a resistant protection in place. An ion-mask™ repellent coating ensures that they remain dry, lightweight and most importantly comfortable.

While EMU's water resistant sheepskin boots do offer protection they still allow water to remain on the boot which over time can lead to staining and absorption. With the addition of ion-mask™ this is no longer a problem and as it is applied on the nanoscale you don't even know it is there.

If you want to know more about ion-mask™ you can here.

What is the difference between waterproof and water repellent?

There have been an increasing amount of articles emerging, explaining the difference between waterproof and water repellent, so we thought it was time to add to the discussion and look closer at the definitions and differences between the two, with particular focus on footwear.

What is the difference between waterproof and water repellent?

Firstly, how are both defined?

• Waterproof: Impervious to water
• Water Repellent: Fabrics that have received a finish or coating that is not easily penetrated by water (Source: Oxford English Dictionary)

Let's look at what it means to be waterproof. Footwear that has a waterproof label or tag similar to the styles used for hiking and trail running, means they are impervious to water (or no liquid can pass through them). Which is great if you are caught out in the elements or passing through streams and you need to stay dry, but how does a shoe actually become waterproof and what are the restrictions to having this type of footwear?

For materials and products to be considered waterproof they need to meet specific criteria. This criteria includes the amount of water pressure (psi) they can withstand before leaking or an "mm/24 hours" rating which equals the amount of rainfall a fabric can withstand in a single day before water starts to leak through.

In footwear terms, to be considered waterproof they will most likely have a barrier or membrane built inside as well as fully sealed seams and stitching, designed to keep water out and ensure your feet stay dry. However, if water enters the shoe above the ankle collar or sweat builds up, then your feet still become wet with the water unable to get out.

Sealed seams and membranes may protect feet from becoming wet but as they are built within the internal structure of the shoe they do not offer the same waterproof protection to the outside material. This can result in the shoe becoming very wet and heavy, leading to reduced comfort for the wearer, particularly on long hikes or runs.

There are of course solutions to this, such as the choice of material used as well as treating the outer surface of the shoe with durable water repellents (DWR). DWRs are coatings applied at the factory stage to fabrics making them water repellent (not proof). This treatment alongside the membrane ensures that the shoe lives up to its waterproof claims. However, these treatments can affect the functionality of the material as well as losing their effectiveness over time and re-treatments are usually required in the form of further sprays. In addition, they are rarely applied to all the materials used in the construction of a shoe, resulting in water ingress points.

There is also the issue of breathability or how much air can penetrate the fabric whilst still allowing sweat vapor to evaporate. The video below demonstrates the effect a membrane can have on breathability:




As you can see, the fabric and membrane layer significantly restricts air flow, while the stand alone fabric has no restriction and lets the air flow freely. While only a demonstration, it highlights the hidden impact a membrane can have on comfort and temperature control.

To combat this there are breathable membranes available that allow moisture (sweat) to escape but these tend to be more expensive than their non-breathable alternatives and can still allow levels of moisture build up to occur during exercise.

So what about water repellent?

Misunderstanding of the term water repellent can lead to disappointment when testing out a product, as you can find your feet or other parts become wet. For example, if a fabric or product is classified as 'repellent' this means it will repel water but is not impervious to it, or put in another way, there is a level of water pressure it can withstand before leaks start to appear. This is not seen as a disadvantage as the materials used will readily allow air to pass through removing the hot microclimate next to the foot, providing comfort and restricting sweating and discomfort.

Similarly to waterproof products there are criteria that fabrics and textiles have to undergo in order to test their repellency and protection levels and thus be given an overall rating. The Bundesmann test is one way of measuring this.

The test simulates actual rain environments by pouring a continuous shower of water over the surface of fabrics at a height to simulate rain, while at the same time lightly abrading the reverse side. The abrading technique is designed to encourage the water to seep through the fabric whilst also simulating movements of the body when a garment is being worn. The amount of water that seeps through, in addition to the amount absorbed into the fabric is then measured and the fabric is given an efficiency rating based on performance. The higher the rating the more repellent the material is.

How does P2i's liquid repellent technology - ion-mask™ differ?

ion-mask™ is a liquid repellent technology, meaning that liquid can still penetrate materials which have a natural airflow. What makes ion-mask™ so unique compared to other repellent treatments such as DWRs is that it is applied to the fully constructed shoe (or product) resulting in complete protection without changing the look or feel. Meaning that functionality such as breathability is not impaired. Furthermore, ion-mask™ is also solvent-free resulting in minimal environmental impact.

 

You can find out more about our liquid repellent technology in the video below and by visiting the ion-mask™ page.