New UL material?

NM

Several years ago (about year 2000) I was nuts with joy when I heard about Nano-Tex, a new company and fabric treatment that allowed cotton to be completely waterproof and stain proof while retaining all its other properties, like comfort, feel, breathability, and so on. It was supposed to be in production "real soon now" and add about $5 to the cost of a garment.

One of the developers demonstrated by wearing a pair of cotton pants in the rain. One leg was treated and the other wasn't — the treated leg was dry and clean but the other was soaking wet. Same for dumping a cup of coffee into your lap — just stand up, brush it off, and go about your business.

So far I still haven't seen anything like this. The original company was bought out by Burlington Industries, which has itself been passed along. As close as I got was two mostly wrinkle-free shirts bought through Eddie Bauer. They're OK but not miracles.

It looks like these folks have focused on moderate to infinitesimally small improvements in mainstream uses rather than fulfilling the radical promises they first came out with. See their web site for what info you can find: http://www.nano-tex.com/

I'll take something half as good as what anyone has promised so far.

— Dave (http://ultralighter.blogspot.com/)

Dave –

In the Lightweight Rainwear 2008 article was a mention of
Dry Freak

which looked like this –

but is a fluoro-polymer coating, as opposed to ‘nano’.

But hey, it’s something.

NanoSphere is a new fabric treatment from Schoeller Textil AG, a Swiss maker of waterproof-breathable fabrics. Schoeller also makes dynamic. I am testing a pair of Westcomb pants (the Syncro)with NanoSphere-treated dynamic. Here's what Schoeller has to say : NanoSphere is said to give the fabric a finely-structured surface to which "dirt cannot adhere" and from which even viscous liquids (honey is an example given) "simply slide off," naturally or with a bit of water. I haven't tried honey, but loose dirt and dust does seem to refuse to stick, even when the pants are wet. David, you are correct, FF does offer NanoSphere as a shell option, for top dollar.

Actually, Dry Freak is also a nanobased coating.
Nanobased coatings need two elements to work: fine particles of nanometric size to coat the surface of a fabric combined with hydrophobic components to repel water. You need both to get hyperhydrophobic treatments.

Without the nanosized particles, the hydrophobic componet would work just as good (or bas) as any other water repellent treatment. In terms of contact angles (the angle a drop of water makes with a surface with 0° being extreem hydrophilic and 180° extreem hydrophobic), the best normal waterrepellent treatments wotn get contact angles of more than 120° which is OK but not great. To get higher contact angles, you need to roughen the surface. By coating a fabric with nanosized particles, you get a very uneven surface. This is necessary to get contact angles beyond 150° (the limit to be called super- or hyperhydrophibic), but alone it is not enough. You need a hydrophobic component (fluorocarbon, silicone, …) to get such high contact angles. If you would apply a waterloving component, the nanosized particles would make the fabric even more hydrophilic.

So the basic components, hydrophobic, hydrophilic or something else in nature, give a fabric it's basic property. And the nanosized particles enhance that property.

Is there anything ultralight about this, or is it just another waterproof material?

my two favorite hobbies are coming together…

Motorcycle apparel maker Rev'it just came out with their Infinity commuting suit that uses this Schoeller waterproofing technology in their suit. Look for long term reviews to see just how waterproof this stuff is…

One thing is certain, the material is very expensive… the suit from Rev'it is a $1300 list price, which is much much higher than average.

BPL reviewed the FF Grouse in Nano and spoke very highly of the material. I have a Merlin and a Swallow in Nano, and it is a fantastic fabric. Very breatheable, quite water-resistant, and light as heck (.94). I view it as being superior to the Extremelite fabric that I have had on a WM bag. It is really good stuff!