Hydrophobic clothing that won’t stain when you spill something on yourself is the dream of clumsy people everywhere, but the materials that are commercially available generally wear out after a wash or two. Now researchers have come up with a self-cleaning coating that’s tough, even when it gets damaged.
“Commercial hydrophobic surfaces aren’t that robust,” Yao Lu, lead author of the study, tells Popular Science. He says the materials are expensive and don’t last for very long before they become ineffective. As an alternative, Lu's team worked with titanium dioxide nanoparticles, a material also found in sunscreen. It’s cheap and easily accessible for labs. In a study published today in the journal Science, the researchers tested the coating not only for how well it kept itself clean, but also how it handled contact with oil and damage.
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