LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Cicadas are emerging all around the country this summer.
Brood XIX has been dormant for the past 13 years, but will pop up and in Kentucky counties such as Allen, Caldwell, Christian and Trigg.
University of Louisville scientists have been inspired by the phenomena. They have created a disinfectant based on the wings of a cicada.
Carl and Candy are the cicadas that inspired senior UofL research engineer Dr. Chuang Qu’s latest project.
“The cicada wing is actually a very cool project. I was inspired to do it when the brood 10 came out,” said Qu.
Brood X came out in 2021, and since then Qu’s been learning about cicadas.
“We already know that the wings of the cicadas, if you look at them, they are actually transparent and they are actually super hydrophobic,” said Qu. But he also learned that a cicada’s wing is antibacterial.
“My specialty is micro nano fabrication. So, I quickly realized after taking some electro microscope images that there are a lot of nanostructures on top of the wings,” said Qu.
He says these nanostructures are shaped like bowling pins and they can kill bacteria.
“When the e-coli lands on top of the cicada’s wings, they actually got punctured inside. So, it has this rupturing effect to kill the bacteria,” said Qu.
Dr. Qu created a material that has the same nanostructure as the cicada wing.
Meaning they’re water repellant and germ-free.
Dr. Qu plans to expand the surface of the material, that way it can be used for doorknobs, medical devices and other objects that need to be kept germ free.