The Boschmans Account » science http://www.boschmans.net A collection of interests and happenings... Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:08:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Selfcleaning clothes http://www.boschmans.net/2008/02/26/selfcleaning-clothes/ http://www.boschmans.net/2008/02/26/selfcleaning-clothes/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:11:14 +0000 alex http://www.boschmans.net/2008/02/26/selfcleaning-clothes/ This is amazing ! Researchers in Australia (woot!) have discovered a way to coat wool (and seemingly other keratin-based materials) with titanium dioxide crystals, in a way that, using sunlight, organic dirt is ‘burned’ and removed. This is dissimilar to other methods that repell water, oil or dirt in that the dirt is actually consumed by the reaction between the crystals and sunlight.

True, you need several hours of sunlight for the material to clean itself, so it is not instant, but still, this would be great : hang your clothes out in the sunshine, and they’ll clean themselves.  Apparently it is harmless, though I would need to have proof of that before wearing it. And I’m wondering if you could coat your hair with it; self-cleaning hair, anyone ?

On a side note, a way to repel oil on a glassy surface like my iPhone touch screen would certainly help in keeping it smudge free !

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