I am obsessed, as anyone who doesn’t vibrate with joy at the thought of housecleaning can appreciate, with self-cleaning products. Sadly, this is not an announcement about self-cleaning windows (my bête noire) but the July 19, 2012 news item on Science Daily does offer the possibility of future relief for anyone cleaning cars, aircraft, or smart phones,

Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have developed a coating with a surface that repairs itself after damage. This new coating has numerous potential applications — for example mobile phones that will remain clean from fingerprints, cars that never need to be washed, and aircraft that need less frequent repainting.

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Researcher Catarina Esteves of the department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at TU/e and her colleagues have [developed] surfaces with special ‘stalks’ carrying the functional chemical groups at their ends, and mixing these through the coating. If the outer surface layer is removed by scratching, the ‘stalks’ in the underlying layer re-orient to the new surface, thereby restoring the function.

This development can be of great importance for many applications. For example it will be possible to make a self-cleaning car, with a highly water-resistant coating that keeps this self-cleaning property for long periods. The superficial scratches will be self-repaired and the water droplets simply roll off the car, taking dirt with them.

The researchers are hoping the first commercially available coatings will be available in the next six to eight years.