Smart self-cleaning bathroom

In an update to our two previous posts:

51)  Toronto's Legionnaire's Disease outbreak Preventable

  and  45) Smart Germ Proof Surfaces

we now have another smart solution to a purpetual household problem...A bathroom that cleans itself

Cleaning bathrooms may become a thing of the past with new coatings that will do the job for you.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales are developing new coatings they hope will be used for self-cleaning surfaces in hospitals, hotels and the home.

The research team is studying tiny particles of titanium dioxide currently used on outdoor surfaces such as self-cleaning windows.

The particles work by absorbing ultraviolet light below a certain wavelength, exciting electrons and giving the particles an oxidising quality stronger than any commercial bleach.

These nanoparticles then kill microbes and break down organic compounds.  And because surfaces coated with titanium dioxide have another property called 'superhydrophilicity' -- meaning droplets do not form -- water runs straight off the surface, washing as it goes.

Problem:

Presently, titanium dioxide can only be activated by the UVA present in sunlight.

Smart Solution:

But the UNSW team is working on ways to activate titanium dioxide with indoor light.

The team is modifying titanium dioxide nanoparticles with other elements such as iron and nitrogen so they can absorb light at longer wavelengths.

Lab trials show that glass coated with the new nanoparticles can be activated by visible light from a lamp to kill Escherchia coli.

"If you've got this on tiles or shower screens you don't need so many chemical agents," says scientists.

E.T.A. 2007

So far the team has been working at laboratory scale.  "It's probably a year before we can talk to industry and test outside the lab," say researchers.

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

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Comments

[William Gravelle]

WHy not just make a bathroom that cleans itself with a pressure washer that you can set on a timer like a dishwasher all you have to do is set a drain in center of bathroom seal the room with and cabinets with weatherstrips from a car that like a primary door seal and then put sealed covers over electrical and then put nozzles that clean every inch of the bathroom with a cleaner and water like most electric pressure washers have a seperate compartment for the cleaner and then while its washing it drains into the drain in the center of the room and after five or ten minutes the heat lamps on the sealing aid in drying the room for twenty minutes and then your done thats cheaper then spending all this money on Nano technology tell me what you think and it would be relatively cheap. Thats my thought