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!"

Comments

Re:Just how much does it do?

[kfg]

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

Re:Oxidation?

[strider44]

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.

Re:Oxidation?

[miro f]

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 ;)