Get the gunk off

Tong Lin and his research team at Deakin University in Australia have developed a coating that is super hydrophopic, i. e., water repellent. Actually, it repels more than just water, from the April 25, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

Scientists are reporting development and successful testing of a fabric coating that would give new meaning to the phrase “stain-resistant” — a coating that would take an active role in sloughing off grease, dirt, strong acids and other gunk. The report, which shows that the coating is even more water-repellent than car wax or Teflon, appears in ACS’ journal Langmuir (“Photoreactive Azido-Containing Silica Nanoparticle/Polycation Multilayers: Durable Superhydrophobic Coating on Cotton Fabrics”).

There is more information about the coating, including a video, in an April 26, 2012 article by Jason Palmer for BBC News online,

The new work hinges on what is known as layer-by-layer self-assembly – basically dipping a fabric into a solution over and over again to deposit multiple layers on it.The team from the Australian Future Fibres Research and Innovation Centre at Deakin University made their solution with tiny particles of silica – the same material as sand.

Crucially, they added a few chemical steps to coat the particles with long chemical tails ending in what are known as azido groups.

… baked under a source of UV light, the tails on the particles were made to interlink with one another, forming a far tougher structure within and across the layers.

Apparently the coating remains intact on the fibres for up to 50 laundry washings.There is more here about Dr. Lin and his work on fibres.

While searching for Tong Lin on the internet I came across a Buddhist practice, Tonglin or Tonglen.

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