Self-cleaning Clothes

Self-cleaning Clothes

1- Cleaning clothes usually requires soap and water to remove stains and smells.

2- The time and energy needed to turn a heap of dirty laundry into a pile of clean clothes might make people wish for clothes that just clean themselves.

3- Well, that wish is a step closer to coming true.

4- Recent experiments show that cotton fabric coated with the right mixture of chemicals can dissolve stains and remove odors after only a few hours in the sun. The technology can be applied to all kinds of fabrics and their related products.

5- The fabric gets its self-cleaning abilities from a chemical mixture that coats the cotton threads.

6- The coating includes substances known as photocatalysts, which trigger chemical reactions in light. These  photocatalysts include titanium dioxide and silver iodide.

7- Researchers had previously shown that titanium dioxide mixtures could remove stains in clothes — but only with exposure to ultraviolet, not visible, sunlight. (The waves of ultraviolet light are more energetic and shorter than those of visible light.)

8- And so the project was still at halt until recently they added particles of silver iodide, which boosted the fabric’s self-cleaning ability in the sun. In laboratory tests, their creation was nearly seven times better at removing stains (and killing bacteria lurking in the clothing) than titanium dioxide alone.

9- Despite of wonderful results, scientists still can’t start selling these fabrics. Recent experiments have shown that it can cause health problems if it gets in the lungs. So before the material can be worn, scientists need to find a way to make it safe.


10- Still, scientists hope people will wear self-cleaning clothes one day — and avoid having to do laundry.

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