Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Scientists engineer unsinkable metal tubes
The superhydrophobic design could lead to resilient ships, floating platforms, and renewable energy innovations.
More than a century after the Titanic sank, engineers still have hopes of someday creating “unsinkable” ships. In a step toward reaching that lofty goal, researchers at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics developed a new process that turns ordinary metal tubes unsinkable —meaning they will stay afloat no matter how long they are forced into water or how heavily they are damaged.
Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics and senior scientist at URochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and his team describe their process for creating aluminum tubes with remarkable floating abilities in a study published in Advanced Functional Materials. By etching the interior of aluminum tubes, the researchers create micro- and nano-pits on the surface that turns it superhydrophobic, repelling water and staying dry.
When the treated tube enters water, the superhydrophobic surface traps a stable bubble of air inside the tube and prevents the tube from getting waterlogged and sinking, in a similar way that diving bell spiders trap an air bubble to stay buoyant underwater or fire ants to form floating rafts with their hydrophobic bodies.
“Importantly, we added a divider to the middle of the tube so that even if you push it vertically into the water, the bubble of air remains trapped inside and the tube retains its floating ability,” says Guo.
Guo and his lab first demonstrated superhydrophobic floating devices in 2019, featuring two superhydrophobic disks that were sealed together to create their buoyancy. But the current tube design simplifies and improves the technology in several key areas. The disks that the researchers previously developed could lose their ability to float when turned at extreme angles, but the tubes are resilient against turbulent conditions like those found at sea.
“We tested them in some really rough environments for weeks at a time and found no degradation to their buoyancy,” says Guo. “You can poke big holes in them, and we showed that even if you severely damage the tubes with as many holes as you can punch, they still float.”
Multiple tubes can be linked together to create rafts that could be the basis for ships, buoys, and floating platforms. In lab experiments, the team tested the design using tubes of varying lengths, up to almost half a meter, and Guo says the technology could be easily scaled to the larger sizes needed for load-bearing floating devices.
The researchers also showed how rafts made from superhydrophobic tubes could be used to harvest water waves to generate electricity, offering a promising renewable energy application.
This project was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and URochester’s Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202526033
Subscribe to the University of Rochester on YouTube: youtube.com/user/UniversityRochester?sub_confirmation=1
Scientists engineer unsinkable metal tubes
The superhydrophobic design could lead to resilient ships, floating platforms, and renewable energy innovations.
More than a century after the Titanic sank, engineers still have hopes of someday creating “unsinkable” ships. In a step toward reaching that lofty goal, researchers at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics developed a new process that turns ordinary metal tubes unsinkable —meaning they will stay afloat no matter how long they are forced into water or how heavily they are damaged.
Chunlei Guo, a professor of optics and physics and senior scientist at URochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, and his team describe their process for creating aluminum tubes with remarkable floating abilities in a study published in Advanced Functional Materials. By etching the interior of aluminum tubes, the researchers create micro- and nano-pits on the surface that turns it superhydrophobic, repelling water and staying dry.
When the treated tube enters water, the superhydrophobic surface traps a stable bubble of air inside the tube and prevents the tube from getting waterlogged and sinking, in a similar way that diving bell spiders trap an air bubble to stay buoyant underwater or fire ants to form floating rafts with their hydrophobic bodies.
“Importantly, we added a divider to the middle of the tube so that even if you push it vertically into the water, the bubble of air remains trapped inside and the tube retains its floating ability,” says Guo.
Guo and his lab first demonstrated superhydrophobic floating devices in 2019, featuring two superhydrophobic disks that were sealed together to create their buoyancy. But the current tube design simplifies and improves the technology in several key areas. The disks that the researchers previously developed could lose their ability to float when turned at extreme angles, but the tubes are resilient against turbulent conditions like those found at sea.
“We tested them in some really rough environments for weeks at a time and found no degradation to their buoyancy,” says Guo. “You can poke big holes in them, and we showed that even if you severely damage the tubes with as many holes as you can punch, they still float.”
Multiple tubes can be linked together to create rafts that could be the basis for ships, buoys, and floating platforms. In lab experiments, the team tested the design using tubes of varying lengths, up to almost half a meter, and Guo says the technology could be easily scaled to the larger sizes needed for load-bearing floating devices.
The researchers also showed how rafts made from superhydrophobic tubes could be used to harvest water waves to generate electricity, offering a promising renewable energy application.
This project was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and URochester’s Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202526033
Subscribe to the University of Rochester on YouTube: youtube.com/user/UniversityRochester?sub_confirmation=1
