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A Bathroom That Cleans Itself
FiReaNGeL writes "Researchers at the University of New South Wales are developing new coatings they hope will be used for self-cleaning surfaces in hospitals and the home. It's made of a special nanoparticle coating that absorbs ultraviolet light below a certain wavelength and gives the particles an oxidizing quality stronger than any commercial bleach. Say goodbye to tedious bathroom cleaning!"
Exactly. This is about bathroom sanitizing, not cleaning.
Won't do a damned thing about dirt on the floor or mineral buildup in the shower/toilet; and these are the time consuming aspects of cleaning the bathroom.
You can already mist antibacterials in a few seconds.
And Lewis Thomas has made a few cogent remarks about the current mania over the bacterial boogeyman in his NEJM column. Read Lives of a Cell for the reprints.
KFG
Why do you say that? Perhaps you should read up to find out what oxidation actually means. Just because it has that "ox" in it doesn't mean that it's directly related to Oxygen.
Anyway the answer to your question is no, it won't be floating in the air, it'll be coated on the toilet.
4 KNO3 + C7H4O + 2 S ------> 2 K2S + 4 CO + H2O + N2
Oxidant room + Man smoking in bathroom + Faeces ------> Same thing.
You can already get pants which are kind of like that. The fabric goes by the brand-name Nano-Tex.
n st_eddi.html
Article: Cutting-edge science creates stain-free pants
Last year an activist group called THONG (Topless Humans Organized for Natural Genetics) apparently organized a topless protest against the use of this material in clothing.
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/09/protest_agai
No, if this is as powerful an oxidizer as they say, those stains won't form in the first place. The same way oxidizing cleaners break up stains, this stuff would be like having a constant coating of bleach on your bathroom surfaces. Furthermore, due to the "superhydrophilicity" of this titanium dioxide coating (as the article mentions), water will not form droplets (tension cannot be maintained), and thus you have a constant sheeting effect, allowing the surface to be very washable. There's a reason they use this stuff on self-cleaning windows on skyscrapers--it's not for the disinfecting action! It actually breaks up and releases the fine organic crud that makes stains in the first place.
Actually, the word oxidation does come from oxygen, stemming from the fact that oxidation requires oxygen. Or at least, we thought it required oxygen, but it is possible to oxidize something without oxygen, something discovered will after oxidization got its name.
;)
Chemistry is full of misnomers, oxygen itself is another, from oxy (acid) gen (generator) because it was thought that oxygen was required to create acids.
So don't blame the guy for assuming oxidation requires oxygen
being vague is almost as cool as doing that other thing...
I dunno about straight from the sealed package. I thought they had 2 control brushes that were kept in another room. Either way, they were never in the bathroom but were also contaminated. Even their expert who conducted the tests didn't think it was anything to really be concerned about though. Having a few specs of bacteria on your toothbrush isn't quite the same as munching on a turd sandwhich.
For reference, it was "Episode: 12: Break Step Bridge, Toothbrush Surprise, Rowing Water Skier"