Biomimcry - Learning from Nature

When developing the GreenShield and GreenShield ZERO finishes the GreenShield Company turned to nature for inspiration (as evolution is a terrific engineer). In the natural world many biological surfaces are hydrophobic because of their complicated composition and surface microstructures. This microscopic roughness, such as that on the leaves of many plants, was one of the inspirations that led to the development of the GreenShield finish oil and water repellents for our green fabric finish.

GreenShield began as a simple yet highly technical question that nature had the answer to: How can we impart an ultrahydrophobic (repels water) surface to fabrics and then have it prove highly oleophobic (repels oils) as well? Nature is full of ultrahydrophobic surfaces; from the leaves of lotus plants, to the wings of butterflies, to beetle carapaces and aphid excretions. In artificially creating and applying such a surface, GreenShield’s scientists had to look to one of nature’s failures: the difficulty in reforesting a recent burn area. During a forest fire, foliage wax will melt into the soil, creating a hydrophobic layer of soil which repels water. Nature’s tragedy was our windfall, and the scientists at The GreenShield Company used this model of granularity and layered deposition when developing the GreenShield finish. The GreenShield finish uses a nontoxic, nonbioaccumulative omniphobic flourocarbon in place of an oil-loving wax, yielding one of the best water-based oil and water repellents in the world. GreenShield ZERO eliminates water uptake and provides excellent water repellency to textiles without the use of fluorochemicals.