One way to understand nanotechnology is to imagine how you could assemble bricks into a 10-foot high barrier? How would you do it?

One way would be to pile them up ten feet high. While this is easy to do and requires little skill, it is not durable or efficient. This barrier would erode over time and requires a large “footprint” in order to reach ten feet high.

Lining up the bricks and making them into a wall is much more efficient and durable. This is analogous to the way Nano-Tex applies technology enhancements to fabric.

At the nanoscale, the objective is to attach a fluoropolymer chain (upper left) to a fiber.

The conventional approach is called “cross-linking”, and is similar to the brick pile. The fluoropolymers are attached to themselves, but not to the fiber, resulting in low durability and a stiff fabric. Furthermore, this solution does not meet the second criteria of nanotechnology: ordered assembly.

Nano-Tex manipulates the fluoropolymers so that they organize themselves on the surface of the fiber, resulting in an efficient treatment that does not affect the feel of the fabric. When the fiber is cured, the “nano-whiskers” permanently attach to the fiber itself, making the enhancement extremely durable.