CES: Three start-up gadget makers are now offering micro-thin coatings that protect cellphones from moisture even when they are completely immersed in water. The special coatings are made of nanomaterials that can seamlessly and invisibly encase iPhone or Android phone and keep it safe from water. HzO, P2i, and Liquipel will be putting their technology on display this week at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“We can’t see why every cellphone on the planet shouldn’t be using our technology,” Paul Clayson, president and CEO of nanotech firm HzO told FoxNews.com. HzO has created a proprietary gas and a special process for applying it that essentially wraps an invisible waterproof shell around anything, a shell just a few molecules thick, Discovery News reported. They have dubbed it as ‘WaterBlocked’.
“We take electronics, place them in a vacuum chamber, and apply a thin coating as a gas,” explained Clayson. “It reaches to every nook and crevice in the assembly to create a universal and effective coating.” Stephen Coulson, founder and CTO of the British company P2i, said that he has also invented a nanofilm, called Aridion that can keep water off smart phones and a distinctive process for applying it.
His technology can shield not just phones from water but all sorts of things from all sorts of other things and that includes protecting military garments from gasoline, oil, lubricants and even nerve agents. “Things like mustard and VX, which are often referred to as gases but are actually liquids with a substantial water pressure,” he said. According to President Danny McPhail, Liquipel Inc., a third company claiming to have patent-pending technology to waterproof cellphones, tablets, headphones and more, is non-toxic and “current can still travel through” a device underwater if it has been treated.