Kitchen Surfaces could be Made Easier to Clean
According to scientists from the USA, new materials can be used on kitchen work tops to effectively clean themselves.
It is as simply as coating the worktops of kitchens with the new materials which rather than using detergents and solvent to clean it allows to be wiped clean with nothing more than water
The plastic coatings will have a bottom layer which attracts water and a Teflon-like upper layer that prevents the passage of oil. The result is an oil-repellent surface that holds a film of water.
This material can also soon also be used to produce self-cleaning floors, walls and windows and Anti-fog coatings version could also be used on windows, mirrors, spectacle lenses or diving masks.
"You add water, and the oil just comes right off like magic," said Dr Jeffrey Youngblood, the project team leader from Purdue University in Indiana, US.
The eco friendly coatings help promote environmentally 'green' attitude by helping to reduce and possibly eliminate the need for products to be used in the kitchen.
"The idea is to use these polymers to clean in situations where it's inconvenient to apply soap or anywhere you would need to have oil cleaned off easily," said Dr Youngblood, who spoke about the research at the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in Washington DC.
"Oil fouling is always a problem. A lot of people overlook the fact that pure water will generally not remove oil from a surface, but using this product transforms water into a super detergent."
The self-cleaning coatings could be commercially available "within a few years"