ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mark Shaw - Macroencapsulator
Mark Shaw develops technologies to contain hazardous waste, storm water and radioactives.

Why you should listen

On graduating from college, Mark Shaw saw a news broadcast on a toxic waste clean-up called Love Canal. The footage showed leaking steel drums of toxic waste being lowered into larger steel drums. It was then he was inspired to “save the world from toxic waste” and build a drum that would never leak. At 23, an economics major working out of a rented storage locker, he developed his first patent, an overpack container with resistance wiring built into the lid that would automatically heat-weld the lid to the container with the push of a button. He dubbed it “Macroencapsulation” and today, it is not only an EPA-approved treatment for hazardous waste but is also used extensively at the U.S. Department of Energy National Labs for shipping and treating mixed radioactive waste that is both chemically and radioactively hazardous. Many of his inventions and products have become the market standard worldwide. Shaw and his companies are also pioneers in the spill containment, stormwater management and spill response industries and are now bringing over 500 practical and innovative products and technologies to industry on a global basis through its 1,500 distributors covering 40 countries.

More profile about the speaker
Mark Shaw | Speaker | TED.com
TED2013

Mark Shaw: One very dry demo

Filmed:
1,634,955 views

Mark Shaw demos Ultra-Ever Dry, a liquid-repellent coating that acts as an astonishingly powerful shield against water and water-based materials. At the nano level, the spray covers a surface with an umbrella of air so that water bounces right off. Watch for an exciting two-minute kicker.
- Macroencapsulator
Mark Shaw develops technologies to contain hazardous waste, storm water and radioactives. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I'm here to show you
0
946
1724
00:14
how something you can't see can be so much fun to look at.
1
2670
3701
00:18
You're about to experience a new, available
2
6371
3803
00:22
and exciting technology that's going to make us rethink
3
10174
2980
00:25
how we waterproof our lives.
4
13154
2128
00:27
What I have here is a cinder block
5
15282
2720
00:30
that we've coated half with a nanotechnology spray
6
18002
2496
00:32
that can be applied to almost any material.
7
20498
2592
00:35
It's called Ultra-Ever Dry,
8
23090
2337
00:37
and when you apply it to any material,
9
25427
2426
00:39
it turns into a superhydrophobic shield.
10
27853
3105
00:42
So this is a cinder block, uncoated,
11
30958
2526
00:45
and you can see that it's porous, it absorbs water.
12
33484
4301
00:49
Not anymore.
13
37785
2654
00:52
Porous, nonporous.
14
40439
4227
00:56
So what's superhydrophobic?
15
44666
2752
00:59
Superhydrophobic is how we measure
16
47418
2493
01:01
a drop of water on a surface.
17
49911
2482
01:04
The rounder it is, the more hydrophobic it is,
18
52393
2400
01:06
and if it's really round, it's superhydrophobic.
19
54793
2928
01:09
A freshly waxed car, the water molecules slump
20
57721
2946
01:12
to about 90 degrees.
21
60667
2940
01:15
A windshield coating is going to give you about 110 degrees.
22
63607
3088
01:18
But what you're seeing here is 160 to 175 degrees,
23
66695
2781
01:21
and anything over 150 is superhydrophobic.
24
69476
4012
01:25
So as part of the demonstration,
25
73488
1549
01:27
what I have is a pair of gloves,
26
75037
2514
01:29
and we've coated one of the gloves
27
77551
2168
01:31
with the nanotechnology coating,
28
79719
2704
01:34
and let's see if you can tell which one,
29
82423
1800
01:36
and I'll give you a hint.
30
84223
2336
01:43
Did you guess the one that was dry?
31
91280
4624
01:47
When you have nanotechnology and nanoscience,
32
95904
4702
01:52
what's occurred is that we're able to now
33
100606
2672
01:55
look at atoms and molecules and actually control them
34
103278
2513
01:57
for great benefits.
35
105791
2432
02:00
And we're talking really small here.
36
108223
1999
02:02
The way you measure nanotechnology is in nanometers,
37
110222
2272
02:04
and one nanometer is a billionth of a meter,
38
112494
3827
02:08
and to put some scale to that,
39
116321
1647
02:09
if you had a nanoparticle that was one nanometer thick,
40
117968
3306
02:13
and you put it side by side, and you had 50,000 of them,
41
121274
2815
02:16
you'd be the width of a human hair.
42
124089
2848
02:18
So very small, but very useful.
43
126937
3008
02:21
And it's not just water that this works with.
44
129945
2904
02:24
It's a lot of water-based materials like concrete,
45
132849
2751
02:27
water-based paint,
46
135600
2169
02:29
mud,
47
137769
1648
02:31
and also some refined oils as well.
48
139417
3383
02:39
You can see the difference.
49
147216
4389
02:43
Moving onto the next demonstration,
50
151605
1490
02:45
we've taken a pane of glass and we've coated the outside of it,
51
153095
2294
02:47
we've framed it with the nanotechnology coating,
52
155389
3250
02:50
and we're going to pour this green-tinted water inside the middle,
53
158639
3775
02:54
and you're going to see, it's going to spread out on glass
54
162414
1961
02:56
like you'd normally think it would,
55
164375
1550
02:57
except when it hits the coating, it stops,
56
165925
3594
03:01
and I can't even coax it to leave.
57
169519
3785
03:05
It's that afraid of the water.
58
173304
1603
03:06
(Applause)
59
174907
3720
03:10
So what's going on here? What's happening?
60
178627
1752
03:12
Well, the surface of the spray coating
61
180379
3288
03:15
is actually filled with nanoparticles
62
183667
1761
03:17
that form a very rough and craggly surface.
63
185428
2074
03:19
You'd think it'd be smooth, but it's actually not.
64
187502
2589
03:22
And it has billions of interstitial spaces,
65
190091
2771
03:24
and those spaces, along with the nanoparticles,
66
192862
3109
03:27
reach up and grab the air molecules,
67
195971
2352
03:30
and cover the surface with air.
68
198323
2063
03:32
It's an umbrella of air all across it,
69
200386
2745
03:35
and that layer of air is what the water hits,
70
203131
2640
03:37
the mud hits, the concrete hits, and it glides right off.
71
205771
3048
03:40
So if I put this inside this water here,
72
208819
2016
03:42
you can see a silver reflective coating around it,
73
210835
4120
03:46
and that silver reflective coating
74
214955
1456
03:48
is the layer of air that's protecting the water
75
216411
2271
03:50
from touching the paddle, and it's dry.
76
218682
3767
03:57
So what are the applications?
77
225340
2497
03:59
I mean, many of you right now are probably going through your head.
78
227837
2448
04:02
Everyone that sees this gets excited, and says,
79
230285
1498
04:03
"Oh, I could use it for this and this and this."
80
231783
1929
04:05
The applications in a general sense
81
233712
2062
04:07
could be anything that's anti-wetting.
82
235774
2830
04:10
We've certainly seen that today.
83
238604
2265
04:12
It could be anything that's anti-icing,
84
240869
2584
04:15
because if you don't have water, you don't have ice.
85
243453
3455
04:18
It could be anti-corrosion.
86
246908
2272
04:21
No water, no corrosion.
87
249180
2026
04:23
It could be anti-bacterial.
88
251206
2198
04:25
Without water, the bacteria won't survive.
89
253404
2709
04:28
And it could be things that need to be self-cleaning as well.
90
256113
3819
04:33
So imagine how something like this
91
261629
3872
04:37
could help revolutionize your field of work.
92
265501
4121
04:41
And I'm going to leave you with one last demonstration,
93
269622
2399
04:44
but before I do that, I would like to say thank you,
94
272021
2601
04:46
and think small.
95
274622
2043
04:57
(Applause)
96
285098
7548
05:04
It's going to happen. Wait for it. Wait for it.
97
292646
4389
05:09
Chris Anderson: You guys didn't hear about us cutting out the Design from TED? (Laughter)
98
297035
4782
05:13
[Two minutes later...]
99
301817
1750
05:15
He ran into all sorts of problems in terms of managing the medical research part.
100
303567
2684
05:18
It's happening!
101
306251
2563
05:20
(Applause)
102
308814
4000
Translated by Joseph Geni
Reviewed by Thu-Huong Ha

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Mark Shaw - Macroencapsulator
Mark Shaw develops technologies to contain hazardous waste, storm water and radioactives.

Why you should listen

On graduating from college, Mark Shaw saw a news broadcast on a toxic waste clean-up called Love Canal. The footage showed leaking steel drums of toxic waste being lowered into larger steel drums. It was then he was inspired to “save the world from toxic waste” and build a drum that would never leak. At 23, an economics major working out of a rented storage locker, he developed his first patent, an overpack container with resistance wiring built into the lid that would automatically heat-weld the lid to the container with the push of a button. He dubbed it “Macroencapsulation” and today, it is not only an EPA-approved treatment for hazardous waste but is also used extensively at the U.S. Department of Energy National Labs for shipping and treating mixed radioactive waste that is both chemically and radioactively hazardous. Many of his inventions and products have become the market standard worldwide. Shaw and his companies are also pioneers in the spill containment, stormwater management and spill response industries and are now bringing over 500 practical and innovative products and technologies to industry on a global basis through its 1,500 distributors covering 40 countries.

More profile about the speaker
Mark Shaw | Speaker | TED.com