Slashdot Mirror
Self-Cleaning Glass
Chris writes "Consumers across Europe can now purchase self-cleaning glass that promises to keep windows free from dirt. The key to Activ glass is an ultra-thin coating only 40nm thick applied to the glass surface during the manufacturing process. The coating, which is based on titanium dioxide, works by combining the two beneficial effects. First, the ultraviolet wavelengths in sunlight react with a photocatalyst to break down organic debris on the glass. The second feature is that the coating is hydrophilic, meaning that when rain hits the glass, it doesn't form droplets. Rain water flows down the glass in a sheet and washes the dirt away."
When are they going to make my plates and cups self-cleaning too?
... but last night I swear they were serving my beer in a self-emptying glass, and that was much less convenient. This morning, my hangover suggests that I may have been helping out.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Perma-Rain-X ? and what is to keep a bird or your pet animal from scratching this coating from the glass
Jon Bardin
If they would only do something for the *inside* that way I don't have to clean those as well!
whenever I clean my windows, my utility bill is lowered by two thirds since I can switch of all these lights during daytime :-)... :-)
darn that street and all that dust
Unfortunately for us all, if you're holding on to the glass, you're blocking the sunlight necessary for the reaction to work -- and while it may work well for the typical dust and grime particle, I'm sure you'll admit that you're _considerably_ thicker than a layer of dust.
This glass was announced at least a year ago. I'll try to find the source, I'll post it if I run across it.
You call it dirt, I call it bugs. Whatever. If they can do that, then I might just have to reinstall when the next version comes out!
They stuck me in an institution, said it was the only solution, to...protect me from the enemy, myself
...I thought that said "SELF-CLEANING CLASS", as if you Slashdot editors were trying to inform us that we (generally) don't have very good hygene and we may even need to go to school to learn to bathe properly.
Karma: NaN
If this stuff works like they say, it would be a great finish coat for cars. Instead of b*tching about it raining right after you give your ride a bath, the rain would *be* the bath! And with much of the country under drought conditions, think of all the water that could be conserved by eliminating the need to wash cars.
Problem is, all that work turns into upkeep, since it's far from permanent. Also, you still end up with spotting and streaking on the windshield from the wax being moved by the wipers.
This sorta thing could cut down on my maintenance costs, so that's a good thing - now if they could put it on the paint, i'd mess myself.
i'm amazed that i survived - an airbag saved my life.
Sounds like this would be good for Mars rovers and the like. One of the problems that we have with rovers is that the glass on the photo cells get dirty and degrades the power output of the cells. I know that it doesnt rain on Mars, but this glass and some wind might prevent the degredation from reaching beyond some critical value.
Welcome to the land of the free...pay toll ahead...no photography...please open your bag...
Esp after a few hours browsing for PORN!!
(score -1 Redundant!)
That's the point it seems. This is the opposite of that stuff you put on your car's windshield to make the rain bead up.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
> Consumers across Europe can now purchase self-cleaning glass that promises to keep windows free from dirt.
Sorry, could not resist.
And somewhere out there, there's a Case Modder who just wet his pants.
One cleaner was quoted as saying "as soon as everyone installs these Windows, the traditional squeegee and soap solutions which anyone can use will become extinct. These Windows will dominate the market, leaving only the poor and art-glass people to come up with truly community spirit based solutions with work for great glass cleaning engineers"
Then the skyscraper windowcleaner lift corporation also came in on the act "we can't fit these 'scrapers with our traditional pulley systems any more... sales are plummeting"
Cowboy Neal still manages to stain his new glass though.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
Now if I could get that in my classes I'd be set, you have no idea how much stuff collects on them just from daily use (unless you wear glasses then you probably know how much stuff collects on them).
Blink
...to get the dirt of the window, then these will be pretty much useless in places like London and Amsterdam where the sun shines about three days a year.
No, I'm pretty sure that it is hydrophilic. Hydrophobic means it repels water, which would cause the water to form droplets, in order to reduce the surface area. Since it's hydrophilic, the water is attracted to the coating, which makes the water sheet.
-David Ziegler
-
Are the first two things I want to see this used on.
Then I can see this used on car windows, computer monitors, and other glass surfaces.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
Read this for more details
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
I wonder if in this day and age, the Windex people will just sue them into oblivion or even better, buy it all up and never actually sell any.
Of course if it does become available, I wonder if I can get my house made out of this stuff - I'd never have to clean again. Though I suppose I would still not be able to throw rocks. *grin*
The Digital Sorceress
That would be a hydrophobic coating. Hydrophilic attracts moisture.
You're on the right track, but reaching the wrong conclusion. A hydrophobic material would cause water to bead up on the surface, as the adhesiveness of the material would be much less than the cohesiveness of the water. This is a hydrophilic material, at least in a sense, because the water adheres to the surface so well that it counters the cohesiveness of the water. I say in a sense, because I think a hydrophilic material usually absorbs water.
Of course, I could be totally off.
"...At the end of the day"..."when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself." RIP Layne Staley
or two months now I have pondered to clean my windows. Triumph, I say! I was right not to do it! I will just get this stuff instead! Being lazy has finally paid off!
It seems the real market for this will be in Tall Buildings, although the article didn't seem to mention that.
I wonder what all those skyscrape window cleaners will do for work? I never understood how someone could just throw a rope over the edge of a building, and go down swinging back and forth cleaning the windows. Those moving platforms they have now at least look more stable, but with these new windows, those too might become obsolete.
The problem seems to be that it would only "clean" the windows when it rains. What about windows that are posistioned where the rain won't ever hit them? I guess you could just hose them off...
-- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
Same coating, same sunlight, wet cloth?
Even if not, it's the outside that is the priority - you don't normally need a ladder to clean the insides.
Ok, cool, self cleaning windows.
Best application for these will probably be cars.
Question though, what happens if you get something non-organic on it... like spraypaint?
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
What are they going to do when it never rains inside the building? "Oops" goes the marketing department.
Washington, DC: It's like Hollywood for ugly people.
A few weeks ago I found out that there was a dead bird in my chimney (sp?). I only found out when there where hundreds of flies in my house, all covering the windows. All the shops were closed, so I couldn't buy a spraycan with which to kill all the flies. Openening the windows didn't do the trick so the only viable option left was to swat them. You should have seenm those windows after I was finished. Lots of organic debris on the glass, but there isn't a self-cleaning window in the world that could keep itself clean with a carnage like this.
I could use it on my car
Hydrophillic materials do not necesarily absorb water, they just interact with it. In fact, you could trap water (and thus to the casual observer absorb it) by using hydrophobic materials. But everything else is very well stated! (much better than I ever could)
PPG is one of the largest manufacturers of residential windows and they have produced windows using the self-cleaning coating for several years now.
http://www.ppg.com/gls_sunclean/
maru
Now we just need some automatically reversible windows so we never have to wash them again.
That would be a hydrophobic coating. Hydrophilic attracts moisture.
...
... ?
the second part is mostly correct, but the secret of this coating according to the article is indeed that it is hydrophilic.
Purely speculating here, but
What I find quite interesting is that a hydrophilic coating will actually attract water molecules to the surface, presumably adsorbed onto the surface by van der waals or hydrogen bonding most likely. Effectively, the adsorbed layer of water molecules would act a bit like a boundary lubricant lubricant, making it difficult for any dirt to stick to the window in the first place and therefore much more vulnerable to removal by rainfall
But why the need for a titanium nitride coating???
"Because it's there." - George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt Everest, March 18, 1923 (New York Times)
Does this mean that I don't have to clean the ass print on my car windows after I moon someone during winter?
Gimme a break people! You can't throw away your Windex yet!
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
You wouldn't want this on your car windows. It would have the opposite effect that RainX produces. Visibility during rain would be very bad.
42
But why the need for a titanium nitride coating???
... that should have said titanium dioxide
bah
"Because it's there." - George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt Everest, March 18, 1923 (New York Times)
Technically completely wrong and modded up as "informative".
Thats one less thing for that guy at the peepshow to do
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
According to Google there are over 1500 references to self cleaning glass, quite a few manufacters are already selling it, Pilkinton (uk glass company) and Sunclean seem to be the market leaders though Pilkington seem to claim "the worlds first". The BBC reported this technology in 2001, in 2002 Saint-Gobain Glass won a Siemens Award for innovation for their version
http://www.ppgsunclean.com/
http://www.activglass.com/
http://www.afgglass.com
http://www.saint-gobain-glass.com
The article didn't say anything about self-cleaning crack pipes. Noelle Bush might be interested in one.
"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq"
-- Paul Wolfowitz, 7/21/2003
And though it's a great idea, it only really works in cities, and doesn't clean *everything*, just oil-based stuff from traffic (and then the dust that sticks to those oils).
It creates a small amount of nitrous acid from rain - it seems someone likes acid rain...but only if it does work for us!
While it'll get rid of marks from kids blowing raspberries on the window, it won't clear up the mud from their fingers.
If glass or transparent plastic were a bit cheaper, you could just replace the windows and not need to clean them.
How about a thin plastic film which you spray onto the glass and just peel off when it gets dirty?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
what about something every geek could use? a self cleaning toilet.
Can't you get a gimp like any normal person ?
One step closer to transparent aluminum.
(Hello... Computer?)
M@
Krispy Cream is people
Excellent! Now we can plant grass without those pesky side effects like helping prevent flash-flooding of urban areas. No longer do we have to cover the earth with concrete, now plants can have equally harmful properties.
I wonder if this was developed because of labor laws. Europe and my home country Holland have been tightening rules on what labor is safe to do for ppl, and what kind of measures should be taken to insure safety in the workplace.
:-) Of course the developers might just be lazy bums like me, who hate to clean windows ;-)
Because of this ladders aren't allowed anymore for windowwashers going up more than one or two floors. These tightened rules have made it either impossible or ridiculously expensive to clean windows in some hard to reach.
These windows might solve this
beauty is only a light switch away
No guys... you have it all wrong... HydroPHOBIC would be when windows are scared of water, right???
Ignore the slashdot writeup. (I didn't really need to say that, did I :-> ) The titanium dioxide coating is the photocatalyst. When UV falls upon it, it produces photoelectrons which transfer to any organic gunk on the surface, oxidising it.
A tip passed down by some family member - and it works! .. I put 'Avon Bubble Bath' on my windshield and it gives the same sort of effect.
Okay, I don't know what goes on when UV hits it, but the water sheets and it seriously keeps the windshield pretty clean.
It always makes me think of the infomercial for Durashine (c'mon, I know you've all seen it).
..mork
As with every new windows technology, this one's bound to have some bugs, annoying unexpected features, and unfortunate tendencies to be cracked.
$8.95/mo web hosting
From their site:
:)
Yes. The surface contains harmless chemical substances already found in the home, in such things as toothpaste and paint. In fact, with only small amounts of cleaning agents needed, Pilkington Activ(TM) self-cleaning glass is kinder to the environment than ordinary glass.
Funny they should use paint as an example, since it generally has a fair amount of harmFUL chemical substances
I assume that since you know the answer to your own question that you meant for the original post to be a joke. The person replying probably did not "get it". No need to get hostile.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
I don't know about window glass, but Pyrex's glass bakingware has had a very effective nonstick coating for some years now. Dump out whatever you baked in it, and the dish is almost completely clean, needing only a bit of rinsing to get it squeaky-clean.
The downside is, the nonstick surface scratches very easily, kinda like old-style teflon did.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
No, but it will drink your beer.
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
It would really suck when Pa had to shoot your windows, too.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
With this stuff, we won't need any jizz-moppers anymore! Read on:
Randal: [reading magazine] Have you ever wondered how much the average jizz-mopper makes per hour?
Dante: What's a jizz-mopper?
Randal: He's the guy that cleans up the nudie booth after each guy jerks off.
Dante: Nudie booth?
Randal: Yeah, nudie booth. You've never been in a nudie booth?
Dante: I guess not.
Randal: Oh, it's great. There's this glass wall between you and these chicks, and they put on a show for you for like 10 bucks.
Dante: What kinda show? [customer walks up to counter]
Randal: They do the weirdest, craziest shit you like to see chicks do. They insert things into any opening on their body-ANY opening.
Dante: Could we not talk about this now?
Randal: The jizz-mopper's job is to clean off the glass after each guy shoots a load. I don't know if you noticed, but cum leaves streaks if you don't clean it right away.
Customer: I will never come to this place again!
Dante: I'm sorry? [I could have sworn he says 'excuse me']
Customer: Using filthy language in front of the customers, you both should be fired.
Dante: I'm sorry, I guess we got carried away.
Customer: I don't know if sorry could make up for it, you've highly offended me.
Randal:Well, if you think that's offensive, check this out! [shows him graphic picture from porn mag] I think you can see her kidneys!
Customer: Aaaaargh!
One extra insight -- what does the customer bring up to the counter?? You guessed it! Paper towels and glass cleaner! Hahaha, what an incredible movie
Berto
Yeah, it should be hydrophillic. Chemist folk do studies of a surface by measuring the contact angle of a droplet of water on a surface. If the droplet seems to curl up to avoid the surface, then the surface is very hrdrophobic. If the water dropp flattens out on the surface, then the surface is very hydrophillic. If the drop completly wetts the surface, it is whupping hydrophillic.
I never saw a picture of the glass, but I am guessing it has a similar surface to that a ginkgo leaf , which is also self cleaning. Biomimicry is the field of science that is looking at nature for ideas for inventions. Could be anything... genetic algorithms... The book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature is an intresting read. I met the author Janine M. Benyus. She is very nice and down to earth.
Is this slated for use in car windshields? If so, I wonder how this will affect the detection range of radar detectors.
A few years ago, there was a study of cars with windshields that use certain tinting and weatherproofing that (incadently) reduces the efficency of radar detectors, cutting detection range from 60-80%. There's some info on it here, and a bit more info here.
-Turkey
coat my 16 month old son with this? He gets dirty within 30 seconds of coming out of the bath.
;-]
Please make sure to leave air and sight holes.
-
Now, if this would remove the nose prints my cat leaves on the inside of my windows they'd really have something...
WOO! Ideal for students like me! Now I don't have to wash my windows anymore!!
err... anymore? hehe, I've never done them anyway
sig(h)
When can I get this for my car? I would love to come out in the morning to windows free of dew or bug guts! Driving in a hard rain would be much nicer too. Easily worth a 20% premium for the cost of a windshield.
Great! I won't have to take the extra time to wipe the fingerprints from my neighbor's window every eveni...
oh, wait...never mind.
This has been available in the US for a while.
I've been pricing new windows for my house, and the self-cleaning stuff is an (expensive) upgrade.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Can they still walk on it?
i'm amazed at the amount of 'highly skilled' tech workers who can't take a shit without leaving crap on the side of the bowl.
:o)
Maybe caused by all the junk food they eat?
You know, garbage in, garbage out?
can I get that stuff on my car too? Breaks down dirt and rain flows over the windscreen without forming drops - no wipers required!
Actually, the first thing I thought of was the inside of my microwave oven. Damn food splatters everywhere.
Also, would the glass itself stop the portion of the spectrum that activates the cleaning process for any inside layer?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This glass uses a coating which uses and absorbs UV light to break down dirt. Solar cells unfortunately need the UV light to fuction properly
..........FULL STOP.
you don't normally need a ladder to clean the insides
What about the vertically challenged? Are they destined to always get out the ladder to clean their windows? (Though, I guess they could just use a hose.)
I was wondering if something similar could not be done for grafitti. You spray a thin coat over a given street sign, for example.
When the "artist" fouls it, you spray on a chemical that dissolves the coating, and the grafitti then flows off with the dissolved coat.
Then hose it down and put on a fresh coat again.
Table-ized A.I.
Solar cells unfortunately need the UV light to fuction properly
That's not true. The spectra of radiation that can be converted to energy by a solar cell is directly related to the bandgap energy of the material the cell is made from, and there is an optimum (for efficiency) bandgap that corresponds to the visible spectrum of light. Most solar cells do not convert significant energy in the UV area of the spectrum
That's part of the reason that solar cells are quoted as being only 10-15% efficient. That's of the total solar spectrum. Most are better than 50% efficient within the relatively narrow part of the spectrum that they are tuned for.
For a little more information, see the ever popular How Stuff Works.
It would be nice to have glassware that is hydrophillic. Some of the more annoying aspects of lab work, especially when dealing with small volumes, is droplets sticking to surfaces. Having (sub 1ml) pipette tips coated with a hydrophillic film would really alleviate the headache of getting every microliter of your liquid, greatly increacing the accuracy of delivery to boot. Self-cleaning glass would also help decrease the chance of a contamination from a previous experiment. Having a hydrophillic surface would also ease dissolving solids into liquids because of the adhesion of the powder to the glass and your attempt to rinse ot off will only create concentrated pools of semi-desolved solution sticking to the glass. Hydrophillic surfaces might even lessen the static clinging of powders to glassware.
Actually (correct me if I'm wrong), since Titanium metal and oxide ion form an ionic bond, it SHOULD be called titanium oxide.
ubi dubium ibi libertas.
That would be great!
This was announced last year here
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
And we're supposed to pay the slightest sensible attention to an AC who seems to honestly believe that "cancerogenous" is a real word? That's just as bad as the mentions of "meativores" in Jurassic Park.
God bless America(tm)...
My deviantArt site
[Butthead]: This... Is the Coolest Thing... I have Ever Seen. :b
.
.
== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
Europeans often still build homes for themselves and expect to live in them for a lifetime or generations. Then, it makes sense to pay for extra conveniences.
Make an entire table setting out of this. You pull them out of their box, set the plates, cups, and silverware on the table, and never have to move them again! No more soapy water to deal with, no more looking for a last clean cup under the sofa! Bliss...
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
With this technology, I wonder how many Linux geeks will start to do Windows ;-)
Well, Pilkington does make auto glass -- my new Mitsubishi Diamante has their glass. My guess is that if some European/Asian automaker asks for it, they'll do it if it's technogically feasible (i.e. can it meet safety regs).
Interesting point about radar detectors -- I tend not to use one, since there's not a lot of speed limit enforcement around Atlanta, and the few municipalities that aggressively enforce speed laws tend to use laser rather than radar.
Now LA just needs to convert all their street signs to glass. It might be cheaper than barb wire.
It would be really interesting to have self cleaning monitors. Everyone seems to forget to clean the fingerprint and sneeze crud off of them. Of course, there are no windows anywhere near my cubicle, so glass that uses UV to break down grime is out of the question.
This is going to make my life so much easier. It might be too expensive to have to do the entire house with this stuff, but I'd gladly pay extra to have a shower screen that doesn't end up with all those little spots from droplets of water that have dried ont he glass.
Not only would the glass not get as dirty, but cleaning it should be a lot easier, just hose it down. It should dry streak free!
Sounds silly, but anything that gets me out of having to clean the shower every weekend is a good thing.
Democracy isn't about no one telling you what to do. It's about everyone telling you what to do.
Birdshit off the windows, woohoo. Now where in the hell is my self cleaning bong?!?
Yeah, that's why you can find titanium dioxide in deoderant, toothpaste, etc...
Isn't this the exact same technology that made one of the protagonists of Clarke's novels--something cowritten or ghostwritten about earthquakes....
Man, I feel dorky.
Both titanium dioxide and titanium oxide would technically refer to TiO2. The "oxide" suffix is generally used for the most common ionic compound (with oxygen, obviously :) ), which is usually also when the cation (the positively charged 'half' of the ionic compound) is in the base valence state. For titanium this is +4, ie. Ti^4+, so you need two O^2- anions to balance it out.
The problem is that many metals, especially heavier elements, and the transition metals most of all, have multiple base valance states that are all very stable, so "XXX Oxide" could refer to any one of a huge number of compounds. Titanium, for example, is also common (and stable) as TiO3, TiO4, Ti2O3 and TiO6 (and some other, rarer versions) so you can see how it quickly gets confusing.
I'm not sure without checking which is the correct name under the IUPAC conventions (standards for naming chemicals).
"Because it's there." - George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt Everest, March 18, 1923 (New York Times)