浪费调味品以及其他产品的日子固执地粘在瓶子的侧面可能已经消失了，这要归功于麻省理工学院Spinout Liquiglide已将其不粘涂层许可到一家主要的消费者公司。
Developed in 2009 by MIT’s Kripa Varanasi and David Smith, LiquiGlide is a liquid-impregnated coating that acts as a slippery barrier between a surface and a viscous liquid. Applied inside a condiment bottle, for instance, the coating clings permanently to its sides, while allowing the condiment to glide off completely, with no residue.
2012年，在Mileclide参加了MIT $ 10万美元的企业家竞赛之后，史密斯和瓦拉纳西（Varanasi）在一系列媒体的关注中，在研究所的帮助下创立了这家初创公司，以将涂层商业化。
Today, Norwegian consumer-goods producer Orkla has signed a licensing agreement to use the LiquiGlide’s coating for mayonnaise products sold in Germany, Scandinavia, and several other European nations. This comes on the heels of another licensing deal, with Elmer’s, announced in March.
但这仅仅是开始的机械工程副教授瓦拉纳西（Varanasi）说，他现在是Liquiglide董事会和首席科学顾问。这家刚进入消费品市场的初创公司正在与众多食品，美容用品和家用产品的生产商达成协议。瓦拉纳西说：“我们的涂料可以与各种产品一起使用，因为我们可以定制每个涂层以满足每个应用程序的特定要求。”
Apart from providing savings and convenience, LiquiGlide aims to reduce the surprising amount of wasted products — especially food — that stick to container sides and get tossed. For instance, in 2009Consumer Reportsfound that up to 15 percent of bottled condiments are ultimately thrown away. Keeping bottles clean, Varanasi adds, could also drastically cut the use of water and energy, as well as the costs associated with rinsing bottles before recycling. “It has huge potential in terms of critical sustainability,” he says.
Varanasi says LiquiGlide aims next to tackle buildup in oil and gas pipelines, which can cause corrosion and clogs that reduce flow. Future uses, he adds, could include coatings for medical devices such as catheters, deicing roofs and airplane wings, and improving manufacturing and process efficiency. “Interfaces are ubiquitous,” he says. “We want to be everywhere.”
Liquid-impregnated surfaces
LiquiGlide was originally developed while Smith worked on his graduate research in Varanasi’s research group. Smith and Varanasi were interested in preventing ice buildup on airplane surfaces and methane hydrate buildup in oil and gas pipelines.
在超疏水表面上的一些初步工作，这些表面会捕获空气和自然驱除水。但是两位研究人员都发现，实际上，这些表面并没有散发出所有液体。在相变的过程中（例如，当蒸气变成液体时）在表面上的微观间隙内凝结水滴并稳定地积聚。这导致表面的抗染色特性丧失。瓦拉纳西说：“对宏观下降的无障碍并不能以微观滴度的侵害。”
Inspired by the work of researcher David Quéré, of ESPCI in Paris, on slippery “hemisolid-hemiliquid” surfaces, Varanasi and Smith invented permanently wet “liquid-impregnated surfaces” — coatings that dont have such microscopic gaps. The coatings consist of textured solid material that traps a liquid lubricant through capillary and intermolecular forces. The coating wicks through the textured solid surface, clinging permanently under the product, allowing the product to slide off the surface easily; other materials can’t enter the gaps or displace the coating. “One can say that it’s a self-lubricating surface,” Varanasi says.
Mixing and matching the materials, however, is a complicated process, Varanasi says. Liquid components of the coating, for instance, must be compatible with the chemical and physical properties of the sticky product, and generally immiscible. The solid material must form a textured structure while adhering to the container. And the coating can’t spoil the contents: Foodstuffs, for instance, require safe, edible materials, such as plants and insoluble fibers.
帮助选择原料,史密斯和瓦拉纳西开发eloped the basic scientific principles and algorithms that calculate how the liquid and solid coating materials, and the product, as well as the geometry of the surface structures will all interact to find the optimal “recipe.”
Today, LiquiGlide develops coatings for clients and licenses the recipes to them. Included are instructions that detail the materials, equipment, and process required to create and apply the coating for their specific needs. “The state of the coating we end up with depends entirely on the properties of the product you want to slide over the surface,” says Smith, now LiquiGlide’s CEO.
Having researched materials for hundreds of different viscous liquids over the years — from peanut butter to crude oil to blood — LiquiGlide also has a database of optimal ingredients for its algorithms to pull from when customizing recipes. “Given any new product you want LiquiGlide for, we can zero in on a solution that meets all requirements necessary,” Varanasi says.
麻省理工学院：企业家实验室
近多年来,史密斯和瓦拉纳西试验性地有限公司mmercial applications for LiquiGlide. But in 2012, with help from MIT’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, LiquiGlide went from lab to market in a matter of months.
Initially the idea was to bring coatings to the oil and gas industry. But one day, in early 2012, Varanasi saw his wife struggling to pour honey from its container. “And I thought, ‘We have a solution for that,’” Varanasi says.
The focus then became consumer packaging. Smith and Varanasi took the idea through several entrepreneurship classes — such as 6.933 (Entrepreneurship in Engineering: The Founder’s Journey) — and MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service and Innovation Teams, where student teams research the commercial potential of MIT technologies.
“I did pretty much every last thing you could do,” Smith says. “Because we have such a brilliant network here at MIT, I thought I should take advantage of it.”
That May, Smith, Varanasi, and several MIT students entered LiquiGlide in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, earning the Audience Choice Award — and the national spotlight. A video of ketchup sliding out of a LiquiGlide-coated bottle went viral. Numerous media outlets picked up the story, while hundreds of companies reached out to Varanasi to buy the coating. “My phone didn’t stop ringing, my website crashed for a month,” Varanasi says. “It just went crazy.”
That summer, Smith and Varanasi took their startup idea to MIT’s Global Founders’ Skills Accelerator program, which introduced them to a robust network of local investors and helped them build a solid business plan. Soon after, they raised money from family and friends, and won $100,000 at the MassChallenge Entrepreneurship Competition.
当Liquiglide Inc.于2012年8月推出时，客户已经撞倒了大门。该初创公司选择了一个选择的号码来为其产品的开发和测试付费。一年之内，Liquiglide是现金流阳性的，在目前的剑桥总部已从三名到18名员工。
回顾过去，瓦拉纳西（Varanasi）将Liquiglide的大部分成功归因于MIT基于创新的生态系统，该生态系统通过实验和协作促进了市场的快速原型。该生态系统包括Deshpande技术创新中心，Martin Trust Trust for for MIT企业家精神，风险投资服务服务和技术许可办公室以及其他计划。瓦拉纳西说：“拥有一个我们可以考虑的实验室……将技术转化为现实世界的应用程序，并具有与人见面的能力，并反弹想法……整个MIT生态系统是关键。”
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