Author: Kamil Zuber, Senior Industry Research Fellow, Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia

It’s annoying to open your dishwasher after the cycle is finished only to find half of the dishes still wet. Instead of being able to stack them away, you end up with a full drying rack. And you’ve probably noticed it’s always plastic items that end up the most wet. What’s going on? The answer is a bit convoluted and requires some materials and physics knowledge, but bear with me. Plastics have very different properties to ceramics and metals – the stuff your plates and cutlery are most likely made out of. Two key things play a role: one is…