Layered Approach
A simple technique for making thin coatings is poised to shift from curiosity to commodity
Wrap an apple in Yasa-sheet and it will stay fresh for weeks. So says Semei Shiratori of Keio University in Yokahama, Japan, who makes this high-tech plastic for preserving fruits and vegetables. To be sure, it’s a humble product. But it may be a harbinger of an enormous new class of materials and products created
in a startlingly simple process: Thin liquid layers applied one at a time create solid, multilayered coatings that mix and match a wide variety of technologically valuable properties.