Accidental spills happen all the time. One minute that glass of grape juice was steady in your hand, and the next minute, you’re wearing it all the way down the front of your white dry-clean-only suit. Sounds familiar? Well, soon you’ll no longer have to worry about the hassle of taking your clothes to the dry-cleaners…
Researchers in Australia and China have developed a non-toxic nanoparticle coating that could leading to “self-cleaning” wool and silk fabrics. Wool and skil are made up of natural proteins called keratins which are hard to keep clean and easily damaged by harsh cleaning agents. Nanoparticles have been created with a coating of anatase titanium dioxide, a substance that has been shown destroy stains, dirt, and harmful bacteria by exposure to sunlight.
From Top to Bottom: Images of red wine stains on Plain Wool (PO), Wool coated with a generic stain-fighting chemical (TO), Wool coated with the new nanoparticle coating (TS) after 0, 8, and 24 hours under simulated sunlight.
Fabrics coated with these nanoparticles show almost no sign of red wine stains after 20 hours of exposure to simulated sunlight. And, they retain their texture and feel. Amazing!