Lipophobicity, also sometimes called lipophobia (from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

λιποφοβία from λίπος ''lipos'' "fat" and φόβος ''phobos'' "fear"), is a

chemical property A chemical property is any of a material's properties that becomes evident during, or after, a chemical reaction; that is, any quality that can be established only by changing a substance's chemical identity.William L. Masterton, Cecile N. Hurley ...

chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...

s which means "

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers spec ...

rejection", literally "fear of fat". Lipophobic compounds are those not soluble in

lipid Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include ...

s or other

non-polar In chemistry, polarity is a separation of electric charge leading to a molecule or its chemical groups having an electric dipole moment, with a negatively charged end and a positively charged end. Polar molecules must contain one or more pola ...

solvent A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...

s. From the other point of view, they do not absorb fats. "Oleophobic" (from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''oleum'' "oil",

ελαιοφοβικό ''eleophobico'' from έλαιο ''eleo'' "oil" and φόβος ''phobos'' "fear") refers to the physical property of a

molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioch ...

that is seemingly repelled from

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

. (Strictly speaking, there is no repulsive force involved; it is an absence of attraction.) The most common lipophobic substance is

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

Fluorocarbons Fluorocarbons are chemical compounds with carbon-fluorine bonds. Compounds that contain many C-F bonds often has distinctive properties, e.g., enhanced stability, volatility, and hydrophobicity. Fluorocarbons and their derivatives are commerci ...

are also lipophobic/oleophobic in addition to being

hydrophobic In chemistry, hydrophobicity is the physical property of a molecule that is seemingly repelled from a mass of water (known as a hydrophobe). In contrast, hydrophiles are attracted to water. Hydrophobic molecules tend to be nonpolar and, th ...

Uses

A lipophobic coating has been used on the

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...

s of

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

's iPhones since the 3GS, their

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

's N9 and Lumia devices, the

HTC HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

HD2, the

Blackberry DTEK50 BlackBerry DTEK is an Android smartphone co-developed and distributed by BlackBerry Limited, and manufactured by TCL. DTEK comprises two models: DTEK50 which is a modified and rebranded variant of TCLs Alcatel Idol 4 (released 26 July 2016); a ...

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

, and Flyer and many other phones to repel fingerprint oil, which aids in preventing and cleaning fingerprint marks. Most "oleophobic" coatings used on mobile devices are

fluoropolymer A fluoropolymer is a fluorocarbon-based polymer with multiple carbon–fluorine bonds. It is characterized by a high resistance to solvents, acids, and bases. The best known fluoropolymer is polytetrafluoroethylene under the brand name "Teflon ...

-based solids (similar to

Teflon Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that has numerous applications. It is one of the best-known and widely applied PFAS. The commonly known brand name of PTFE-based composition is Teflon by Chemou ...

, which was used on the

HTC Hero HTC Hero (marketed as T-Mobile G2 Touch by T-Mobile in the UK, Austria, Germany, Croatia, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Hungary; and as Era G2 Touch in Poland) is the third phone manufactured by HTC running the Android platform, announced on Ju ...

) and are both lipophobic and hydrophobic. The oleophobic coating beads up the oils left behind a user's fingers, making it easy to clean without smearing and smudging. This helps decrease the feasibility of a successful

smudge attack A smudge attack is an information extraction attack that discerns the password input of a touchscreen device such as a cell phone or tablet computer from fingerprint smudges. A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania were the fir ...

. In addition to being lipophobic or oleophobic,

perfluoropolyether Perfluoropolyether (PFPE) is a type of liquid lubricant that has been used in the aerospace industry for over 30 years. The main properties of PFPE are being temperature resistant between and (depending on specific composites), having very low ou ...

coatings impart exceptional lubricity to touch screens and give them a "slick feel" that eases their use. Use of

isopropyl alcohol Isopropyl alcohol (IUPAC name propan-2-ol and also called isopropanol or 2-propanol) is a colorless, flammable organic compound with a pungent alcoholic odor. As an isopropyl group linked to a hydroxyl group (chemical formula ) it is the simple ...

wipes to clean the screen should not damage or remove the coating. DIY products exist to restore or add an oleophobic coating to devices lacking one.

References

{{Reflist Chemical properties

Uses

See also

References