RMIT University researchers have developed a new way to coat fragile surfaces, including living plant leaves, using high‑frequency sound waves to create a fine mist that can act like a plant sunscreen.

The approach tackles a long‑standing challenge in materials science: many promising coatings require high temperatures or harsh processing, making them unsuitable for delicate surfaces such as living tissue, soft plastics or emerging electronic materials.

The research paper, “Ambient one‑step synthesis and direct coating of highly crystalline covalent organic frameworks on arbitrary surfaces,” is published in Science Advances.