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Researchers Develop Self-Cleaning Clothes
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Feb 25, 2008 01:23 PM
from the your-washing-machine-is-pissed dept.
from the your-washing-machine-is-pissed dept.
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Researchers at Monash University, in Australia, have found a process to coat natural fibers such as wool, silk, and hemp that will automatically remove food, grime, and even red-wine stains by coating their fibers with titanium dioxide nanocrystals, which break down food and dirt in sunlight. Titanium dioxide is a strong photocatalyst and in the presence of ultraviolet light and water vapor, it forms hydroxyl radicals, which oxidize, or decompose, organic matter. "These nanocrystals cannot decompose wool and are harmless to skin," says organic chemist and nanomaterials researcher Walid Daoud. Titanium dioxide can also destroy pathogens such as bacteria in the presence of sunlight by breaking down the cell walls of the microorganisms making self-cleaning fabrics especially useful in hospitals and other medical settings."
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Sunlight? (Score:5, Funny)
This is some new kind of LED, right?
"...natural fibers such as wool, silk, and hemp..." So what if I'm sitting real close to someone who is wearing spandex or nylon or some other artificial fabric? Does it eat through those?
Re:Sunlight? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Sunlight? (Score:5, Funny)
Interesting ramifications if you went to the beach [wikipedia.org] to get some sun [wikipedia.org] in the presence of a woman [wikipedia.org] wearing a bathing suit [wikipedia.org].
I think we may need to get a grant to see if this chemical can cause the spontaneous decay of women's swim wear in public.
Cheers
Parent
Totally off topic (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Totally off topic (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Its Achilles heel (Score:5, Funny)
Can they modify the fabric to react to the glow of a CRT?
Re:Its Achilles heel (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Its Achilles heel (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Only self-cleans in sunlight? (Score:5, Funny)
In Other News... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In Other News... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Interesting variety of uses (Score:5, Interesting)
Two questions (Score:5, Interesting)
2) What does this do to the longevity of the fibers in the fabric? Does constant exposure to hydroxyl ions damage the cellulose in them?
Well, there goes my plans... (Score:5, Funny)
I guess I could try the "Make a sudden stop at a light right before it turns red and stick my arm out to make sure she doesn't fly forward" plan.
Welcome to 2002, Australia! (Score:4, Funny)
self-cleaning and self-destructing? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds like a great way to ensure no one wears last year's fashions.
Headlines (Score:5, Informative)
June '09 - Startup "Washtec" Sells First Self-Cleaning Clothes
Oct. '09 - Old Navy, Nike, UnderArmour License Self-Cleaning Fabric Technology
Nov. '12 - Self-Cleaning Apparel Set to Overtake Ordinary Clothing Sales this Holiday
July '13 - Self-Cleaning Clothes Linked to Cancer, Impotence, Schizophrenia
Aug. '13 - Self-Cleaning Clothes Health Study Flawed
Nov. '13 - Self-Cleaning Clothes: The Killer in your Closet
Nov. '13 - SCCs do Pose Some Risk, Scientists Say
Dec. '13 - SCC Risks Exaggerated, Study Finds
Feb. '14 - Old Navy pulls SCCs from Shelves
June '14 - Newer, Safer, SCC Technology Developed
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Still, fluorescent tubes not only cause me to have seizures, but they also produce huge amounts of ultraviolet light. Will they still work? (No, the humor is not lost on me that the lighting in hospitals causes me to have seizures... )
Re:Life span of garment? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Safe on the body, but inside the body? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Man, I remember when Lead was safe too (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: Wait a cotton pickin minute? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: Wait a cotton pickin minute? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:This might make business SCENTS and CENTS... (Score:5, Informative)
All particles with sharp edges, i.e. that come from minerals, irritate the delicate tissue lining your lungs if you inhale it. TiO2 is no different in this regard than, say, SiO2 -- plain old sand -- that you might inhale if you were around blasting or power sanding operations all day. (Google "silicosis.")
Furthermore, your lungs are built like lobster traps from the point of view of inhaled superfine particles: it's easy to get in, but very difficult to get out. This is why in the upper region of the respiratory tract, you have mucus that traps inhaled larger particles and cilia that beat constantly to flush them up and out, plus a cough reflex to expel the scum. But you can't have these things in the deep tissue of the lungs, because that surface area is needed for gas exchange.
So if you inhale very fine dust, it just stays in your lungs pretty much forever, jiggling around and rubbing on things, irritating them. Your body may decide to wall it off with scar tissue if it's irritating enough, which is the "fibrosis" mentioned. It's even possible if it's sufficiently irritating, like the very sharp particles of asbestos fibers, that it can stimulate lung cancer. For all we know, the only reason people get lung cancer in the large numbers they do is because, sooner or later, everyone's lungs fill up with irritating particles of all manner and description and the chronic irritation causes tumors. Unfortunately, the only way to eliminate the threat of inhaled fine dust completely is to never breathe without a heavy fine-filtering face mask.
Insofar as these clothes are concerned, the primary question would be: how is this very fine dust going to be generated? I mean, inhaling very fine silica (SiO2) dust is dangerous in exactly the same way, but you don't refuse to go to the beach or rock-climbing because you know the rock and sand has no reason to suddenly pulverize itself and become superfine dangerous dust. So how would fibers coated with TiO2 get pulverized and generate super fine dust? Don't say the motion of wearing the clothes, either, because you need much more force than this. Walking on the sand at the beach doesn't pulverize the sand particles and generated dangerous superfine silica dust, after all.
Parent
Re:This must be what Star Trek uniforms are made o (Score:5, Funny)
Parent