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Nanotech Coating Prevents Fogging
MilSF1 writes "MIT scientists have applied for a patent on a coating process that reduces or eliminates fogging on glass surfaces (car windshields, eyeglasses, etc). The new coating was described today at the 230th national meeting of the American Chemical Society."
One of the worst things about wearing glasses up north is the fogging.. being outside in -25c temperatures for even a few minutes and glasses get cold enough that they fog up when paying for gas, or shovelling snow, etc.. pain in the ass. I welcome this new technology :)
I guess not.
Humidity is still there - just not in the form of little droplets.
gtkaml.org
I'm not a raging anti-patent looney screaming about the need for a free utopioan society, but if funding for this was provided by the public, surely the results belong to the public and the methods belong in the public domain rather than to MIT for the next 17-34 years.
woof.
Why spend money on a coating for the glasses when there are several solutions readily at hand? 1) Don't eat junk food. 2) Wash your nasty hands. 3) Wear gloves.
It's being called nanotech because it uses nanoparticles, very small groupings of atoms, containing 100s or 1000s of atoms. Government money for nanotech research applies if you're working with objects smaller than 100nm in some dimension. IIRC, carbon nanotubes are sized roughly 5nm and larger in diameter.
The current state of the art of nanotech is not nanobots that can cure cancer. That's just what people speculate might come out of this technology, but how often is such exhuberance warranted? where's my flying car?
Also, by the way, something one micron across would be microtech by definition, not nanotech, but that's more me being a stickler than informative...
It doesn't, because doing so would violate certain thermodynamic principles in horribly gruesome ways.
If there is an object with a temperature below the dew point, water will condense on it, regardless of what the surface is like.
Just the other week I was nearly driven crazy by a layer of fog that had snuck in-between the two lenses of my ski goggles. It took several days of sitting them next to a heater before the problem was fixed. Presumably this couldn't happen with totally fog-free lenses.
Using liquid nitrogen or dry ice to cool your computer has nothing to do with "high efficiency cooling".
It's rice. And it's stupid. And it has nothing to do with cooling your machine in a practical or efficient manner.
So did MIT do their background research before starting this patents application?
Those products appear to be using (a) an attachable "sticker" or (b) a spray. Neither of which I would call particularly permanent. Anti-fog coatings (in general) have been around for years. The concept of applying them at manufacturing time using the particular process detailed in TFA is presumably the novel basis on which they are applying for a patent. If not, one would hope the Patents office will deny them the patent.
From TFA:
"The team has developed a unique polymer coating - made of silica nanoparticles - that they say can create surfaces that never fog."
"Some stores carry special anti-fog sprays that help reduce fogging on the inside of car windows, but the sprays must be constantly reapplied to remain effective."
So yes, I'm guessing they did do their background research. Did you, before posting? For example, by reading TFA?
So why is anything being called nanotech?
Nanotech is a buzzword. It doesn't really mean anything. It's never meant anything. It's just a new word used by chemists, solid state physicists, and others to get funding and excitement around the same stuff they've been doing for quite some time.
I have a product called FogX that I've been putting on the inside of my car windshield for years. No fog, no hassle, low cost. I've also been applying it to bathroom mirrors and such. Am I completely missing something, or is this not exactly a breakthrough?
It seems to me that people have all kinds of solutions to keep surfaces from fogging or to make the water that does condense on the surface to remain clear. However there are two things that seem to be difficult to do with any of these solutions.
They are to make the solution permanent and durable and...
To make the solution of a material that will not distort your vision when looking through the surface of the material.
So yes, you could apply rain-X every month or wipe shaving cream on your surface or even make sure the surface is vented or heat the surface. However having a permanent coating on it that prevents fogging and makes it easy to see through is the best solution.