Nanotech coating to cure fogging permanently

December 12, 2005 Nanotachnology looks set to permanently fix the problem of fogging glass, with the news that a team of MIT scientists has developed a silica nanoparticle polymer coating for glass or plastic that creates a permanent non-fog surface. When commercialized sometime in the next few years, the technology will find immediate application in products such as eyeglasses, helmet visors, camera lenses, skiing goggles, bathroom mirrors and shower screens, but it will be in our cars that we will most likely first encounter the technology. Driving is a sight-response game and if you can’t see, you’ll lose. Not surprisingly, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was one of the major funders of the project as having a foggy windscreen makes you vulnerable in battle as well as on the roads. When a cold surface suddenly comes into contact with warm, moist air, thousands of tiny water droplets condense on it, scattering light in random patterns and causing the surface to become translucent. The coating prevents this by attracting the water droplets and reducing their contact angles with the surface. As a result, the droplets merge into a uniform, transparent sheet rather than forming countless individual light-scattering spheres. Nanotechnology will also enable the same coatings to have superior anti-reflective properties that reduce glare and maximize the amount of light passing through (good for greenhouses and solar cell panels).

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