Water Repellency Goes Nano: Carpet of carbon nanotubes cleans itself

The amazing water-shedding ability of the lotus leaf has long inspired materials scientists. The leaf’s wax-coated microstructures cause rain droplets to bounce off the surface, carrying away with them dust particles and other contaminants. In trying to reproduce this so-called lotus effect in the lab, chemical engineers have fabricated a similar self-cleaning material out of forests of carbon nanotubes.