Great news for people who abhor those washers and dryers! Nanotechnology will soon provide an easier way out of cleaning your dirty linen. Self-cleaning types of wool and silk will ensure that you don’t need to wash anything ever. Figuratively speaking of course!
Researchers in Australia and China believe that nano particle coating would lead to “self-cleaning” fabrics and clothes made from these would clean themselves of stains and body odors. The reduced incidence of cleaning would also prolong the lives of clothes since keratins would no longer be exposed to harmful cleansing agents.
Dr Walid Daoud of Monash University, Victoria, Australia, and colleagues are some of the best minds working to break the shackles of our washing machines. They prepared wool fabrics both with and without nanoparticle coating composed of anatase titanium dioxide. This substance is known to break down contaminants when exposed to sunlight.
Dr Daoud says:
The self-cleaning technology in our work uses titanium dioxide photocatalyst that when triggered by light, it decomposes dirt, stains, harmful microorganisms and so on.
When the created fabric samples were stained with red wine and left for 20 hours in simulated sunlight. Amazingly the one with fancy coating showed no stain. This coating, researchers say, does not affect the fabric’s feel and is non-toxic.
The hardest part of the research was getting keratin to bind with titanium dioxide. A chemical reaction on the surface of fibers took care of that problem. Dr Daoud says that commercial application is distinctly on the radar and the fabric is undergoing industrial testing.
So if new washing equipment was on your shopping list, just hold on. Maybe, er, five years.
