In 2006, "Popular Science" magazine published an article that said you'd never have to clean your house again by 2011. That was hopeful, and sadly it wasn't accurate. We still have to clean our houses frequently. But the text brought up some good points and was at least forward-thinking in-part. With numerous nanotechnology-based products available today, we will spend a lot less time cleaning our houses, our clothing and our cars.
Much of this technology relies on titanium dioxide. When exposed to the ultraviolet rays of daylight, it reacts in a way that breaks down bacteria molecularly and essentially zaps it away. It utilizes the light in a similar way that plants use it in photosynthesis. While green, growing things use daylight to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, titanium dioxide uses daylight to turn bacteria into hydrogen, carbon-dioxide and other elements that are melted away into the air rather than remaining on the surface.
In addition to its property of breaking down bacteria using daylight, titanium dioxide also reacts with water. Water beads on its surface, rolling off and collecting any dirt and dust with it as it rolls. This is also known as the lotus-effect, named after the leaves of the lotus plant. The beading on the surface of the leaf causes the water to roll off, fundamentally cleaning the path they follow as they are going.
The massive advantages of titanium dioxide used as a coating and built into surfaces is that dirt won't build up routinely thanks to the photosynthesis-like action, and when it does, it will be washed away because of the water-beading properties found in several common products like car polish. Some landmark buildings around the globe have been sprayed with this kind of nanotechnology in order to keep their exteriors cleaner and to reduce the effects of time.
The employment of this indoors poses a problem at the moment, because of the need for daylight. But research is generally moving the process forward.
Much of this technology relies on titanium dioxide. When exposed to the ultraviolet rays of daylight, it reacts in a way that breaks down bacteria molecularly and essentially zaps it away. It utilizes the light in a similar way that plants use it in photosynthesis. While green, growing things use daylight to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, titanium dioxide uses daylight to turn bacteria into hydrogen, carbon-dioxide and other elements that are melted away into the air rather than remaining on the surface.
In addition to its property of breaking down bacteria using daylight, titanium dioxide also reacts with water. Water beads on its surface, rolling off and collecting any dirt and dust with it as it rolls. This is also known as the lotus-effect, named after the leaves of the lotus plant. The beading on the surface of the leaf causes the water to roll off, fundamentally cleaning the path they follow as they are going.
The massive advantages of titanium dioxide used as a coating and built into surfaces is that dirt won't build up routinely thanks to the photosynthesis-like action, and when it does, it will be washed away because of the water-beading properties found in several common products like car polish. Some landmark buildings around the globe have been sprayed with this kind of nanotechnology in order to keep their exteriors cleaner and to reduce the effects of time.
The employment of this indoors poses a problem at the moment, because of the need for daylight. But research is generally moving the process forward.
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We may not yet have houses that clean themselves like the idea in "Popular Science" expected, but we may have almost self-cleaning autos thanks to the nanotechnology utilized in CeNano.net's Nanotol car polish.
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