So Nikon's breakthrough technology would result from a collaboration with pan manufacturers? This is not sexy at all...
This soil release benefit is well documented as the "lotus effect", quite amazing actually. The nice thing about PTFE is that it works on polar and non polar liquids. Neither oil nor water will spread in a new PTFE pan... Is someone willing to try on his Nikkor? I would of course but don't have any of those...
Years ago I worked on the opposit effect: how to favor glass wetting by lowering as much as possible the contact angle of water, and how to prevent dewetting by designing micro-patchy structures (an array of hydrophilic and hydrophobic midro domains). That was a fun project... The goal was to reduce the visual perception of dirt on glasses. The resulting benefit was to fight the irresistible impulse to clean windows when they look spotted. Well, irresistible to some.
