Sunday, 2 October 2011

Self-cleaning cloth makes short work of bacteria


Not everyone loves to do the laundry, so I guess with necessity being the mother of all invention, cometh the self-cleaning cloth. Yes sir, chemists at the University of California at Davis have discovered a method to manufacture cotton cloth that kills bacteria not by the use of magical incantations or spells, but rather, through the simple method of exposing said cotton to light. Colonies of bacteria that are unseen to the naked eye will be killed, not to mention the breakdown of toxic chemicals like pesticide residues.
This self-cleaning cloth is the brainchild of Ning Liu, a doctorate student at UC Davis, who has worked with textile chemists Gang Sun and Jing Zhu so that the compound (2-AQC) is integrated into cotton fabrics. Whenever said integrated compound is exposed to light, it will produce reactive oxygen like hydrogen peroxide that will make short work of bacteria and break down toxins. No idea on whether there is any long term effects on humans who wear such a cloth.
One thing though, this is not going to remove stains or come anywhere close to that, so you might want to take down your washing machine listing from Craigslist first

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