C&EN talks with Jas Pal Badyal, coatings entrepreneur

Abstract

Chemist Jas Pal Badyal is committed to solving big problems with very small tools: layers of functional molecules only a few nanometers thick. His ultrathin coatings have entered the marketplace on clothing, footwear, and electronics. They impart water-repellent, antibacterial abilities to around three-quarters of the world’s hearing aids and more than 100 million cell phones. After launching three successful high-tech start-ups, the Durham University professor is now tackling social problems in developing nations. He spoke with Prachi Patel about creating coated materials that can harvest and purify water, a need for countries in the developing world. How do you make your liquid-repellent nanocoatings? We essentially control chemical reactions that occur on solid surfaces using plasma discharges, which are clouds of ionized atoms. One way we do it is to repeatedly expose the surface to a short pulse, usually microseconds, of plasma discharge followed by a longer off time lasting milliseconds.