A team of Filipino researchers has developed a simple and affordable way to make adjustable lenses using nothing more than water and plastic-coated glass.
These innovative liquid lenses could soon find their way into classrooms, laboratories, cameras, and even wearable devices.
The findings were recently published in the journal Results in Optics.
The scientists discovered that by coating a regular glass slide with specially treated polyvinyl chloride (PVC)—a common plastic—they could create a surface that repels water.
When a drop of water is placed on this hydrophobic surface, it naturally forms a dome shape, like a tiny magnifying glass.
By changing the size of the droplet, they found they could easily control the lens’s magnifying power.
To make the water-repelling surface, the researchers used a technique called electrospinning. In this process, the PVC is melted and stretched into ultra-fine fibers using an electric field.
These fibers are then deposited onto the glass, making it resistant to water.
The resulting texture keeps water droplets in a rounded, lens-like shape rather than allowing them to spread out flat.
When the scientists shined a laser beam through these droplets, they noticed the beam changed depending on the droplet’s size. Larger droplets spread the light more gently, like long-distance lenses, while smaller ones had a stronger focus, similar to close-up lenses.
Throughout the process, the beam remained clean and undistorted, showing that the droplet lenses maintained high optical quality.
Because the method is low-cost and easy to recreate, it holds great promise for practical applications. In schools with limited laboratory equipment, these lenses could help students learn the principles of optics in a hands-on, engaging way. In remote or resource-limited areas, they could be used to build basic scientific tools for education, research, or even medical diagnostics.
In professional labs, these water-based lenses could offer a quick and flexible way to adjust lasers or light beams without needing expensive equipment.
With further development, they might even be used in consumer devices such as cameras, microscopes, or wearable gadgets. There’s also potential for use in compact diagnostic tools or small-scale projection and lighting systems.
What started as a simple experiment with water and plastic may soon open up exciting new possibilities in science, technology, and education—thanks to a clever and creative approach to one of optics’ most fundamental tools.
Source: KSR.
