MIT Glass Innovation Is Self-Cleaning, Resists Glare VIDEO)

Through a process involving thin layers of material deposited on a surface and then selectively etched away, the MIT team produced a surface covered with tiny cones, each five times taller than their width. This pattern prevents reflections, while at the same time repelling water from the surface.

By: InnovationNewsDaily Staff
Published: 04/26/2012 05:00 PM EDT on InnovationNewsDaily

Tomorrow's world looks a bit brighter with MIT's new self-cleaning glass that is able to resist fogging and glare effects. Such technology could lead to smudge-free touch screens for smartphones and tablets, or even cleaner, nonreflective windows for car drivers.

The new glass eliminates reflections and repels water droplets like "tiny rubber balls" bouncing off the ground, according to MIT News. Its secret recipe consists of tiny surface features that resemble nanoscale cones — 1,000 times to 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. If made inexpensively enough, the glass could end up in cameras, smartphones, televisions, solar panels, car windshields or even building windows.

"For the first time, as far as I am aware, this paper learns a lesson in manufacturing efficiency from nature by making an optimized anti-reflective and anti-fogging device," said Andrew Parker, a senior visiting research fellow at Oxford University’s Green Templeton College in the U.K. (Parker was not involved in MIT's work).

The researchers' nanocones appear fragile — inspired by natural surfaces such as lotus leaves —  but calculations show they can resist everything from raindrops in a strong downpour to wind-driven pollen, or even poking by curious humans. The work is detailed in a paper published in the April 8 online edition of the journal ACS Nano.

Such self-cleaning could give a huge boost to solar power alone — many solar panels can lose 40 percent of their energy efficiency within six months because of accumulated dust and dirt. Solar panels protected by the new glass could also avoid problems related to normal glass reflecting away useful sunlight.

The U.S. military may also have an interest in the future of self-cleaning, nonreflective glass. MIT's work was funded by the Army Research Office and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, as well as Singapore's National Research Foundation and the Xerox Foundation.

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Comments

[iflew]

05:01 PM on 04/29/2012

Sub periscopes would be easier to keep clean. It's such a pain to lock out and swim up to clean the glass. Airplane windshields don't exactly clean themselves very well. When a goose is stuck to the windshield wiper it doesn't work very well. A predator with a dirty windshield is hard to land. Auto, SUV and mommyvan windshields don't need this glass because too many of their operators are texting to even notice the view outside.

[firewired]

06:15 PM on 04/28/2012

Will this make self-cleaning eye glasses possible? If so, I want a pair! Whoever holds a patent on such an idea should become very wealthy quickly!!

[jcolvin325]

04:41 PM on 04/28/2012

Great...now the government will be bailing out the window cleaning unions

[carlwhart]

04:45 PM on 04/28/2012

really dumb

[trueblueredstater]

06:57 PM on 04/28/2012

Wow, how did you get to that?

In the extremely unlikely event that this stuff works out, and the less likely event that it becomes cheap enough to use for windows, you are not going to see a massive replacement of the existing windows infrastructure...you might see new window defaulting to the newer materials, but it won't be cost effective to replace existing windows for years - when the price comes down to be competitive with conventional glass.

And, I'm not so sure that such a thing as a windows cleaning union even exists.

Oh, wait, I forgot. Obama is still black.

[TheMuckraker]

04:28 PM on 04/28/2012

I was hoping that white spikey pic on the front page was of a Toothbrush that wouldnt wear out.
But then they cant gouge us every month or 2 for new ones.

[onewhothinks]

01:48 AM on 04/29/2012

Even if there wasn't that kind of incentive, any kind of object that never wears out with use is pure fantasy.

[pixeloid]

02:34 AM on 04/30/2012

To avoid the "toothbrush trap", just stop brushing your teeth. ;-)

[TheMuckraker]

12:37 PM on 04/30/2012

When I was homeless for a few years, I did just that.
Now my teeth are breaking off in chunks.
I am sure diet has more to do with it, and the tweak had even more (fortunately, clean and sober for almost 18 years now.... I am Still paying for those choices and circumstances)

[NaClH2O]

03:16 PM on 04/28/2012

Can't wait to get a new scuba diving mask that won't fog!

[Climate Lurker]

11:05 AM on 04/29/2012

Ski goggles would be nice too...

[p456]

02:11 PM on 04/28/2012

Science Baggers Science this is how to make the future better.

[stevemarvin]

02:08 PM on 04/28/2012

People who live in self cleaning glass houses can now throw stones.

[Wall Str33t]

04:14 PM on 04/28/2012

Humanity will not have reached the pinnacle of self indulgence until I can order a self throwing stone online and have it throw itself through the open, non-reflective hole where the window sometimes goes.

[PirateJohn]

05:23 PM on 04/28/2012

You mean a self-ordering self-throwing stone...

[IDIOTA]

01:44 PM on 04/28/2012

Fascinating. Mitt is interested to know if this technology could shield him from the common.

[fem56]

11:53 PM on 04/30/2012

I assume you mean the common man or maybe the common dog?

[wa-st-concerned]

01:08 PM on 04/28/2012

MORE money for this kind of research - NONE for wars.......

[racine2u]

12:58 PM on 04/28/2012

Well..give China a week to download the "secret" recipe, and they will be the worlds supplier, with their cheap labor and zero environmental protections, in no time.

[oldwolf49]

12:48 PM on 04/28/2012

Fine fine, BUT does it make porn look more real??

[robbor]

12:37 PM on 04/28/2012

perfect for solar panels

[TheMuckraker]

02:42 PM on 04/28/2012

Unless it makes them even more unobtanium

[MarkOates]

12:11 PM on 04/28/2012

I hate to be a downer on the article, but awesome inventions like this are popping up more and more every day. This is one of many I've seen in the past weeks... I wonder why it got the front page slot?

[Machiventa68]

01:17 PM on 04/28/2012

Mark, are getting bored with "awesome" inventions already? How jaded can you get?

[MarkOates]

04:42 PM on 04/28/2012

Nuh...no... like... My comment was intended more to say "why, with all the amazing technological things that are happening all the time, do we only get front page stories on seemingly random samples of them? Of all the things that have come across, why does something as innocuous as fancy nano-cone glass get front-page news?"

[storiesfromhavendotcom]

01:22 PM on 04/28/2012

innovations such as these should be front page. Science is extremely important in the 21st century.

[ie]

12:00 PM on 04/28/2012

government funding for this--THAT'S SOCIALISM. Foul! Foul!

[oldwolf49]

12:47 PM on 04/28/2012

f/f

[DJ DEKA]

02:05 PM on 04/28/2012

Spot on. Another score for socialism.

[Bergen2]

12:00 PM on 04/28/2012

Kudos to MIT! American innovation at it's best, for as long as we keep education from being completely gutted by the GOP.

[Nosybear]

12:15 PM on 04/28/2012

Don't forget to add "and funding for basic research" to your sentence.