A mustard eruption at lunch? No worries: Just take a stroll in the
sun. Chinese scientists have created a chemical additive for cotton that
degrades stains and kills bacteria when exposed to light, opening the
door to self-cleaning clothes.
Titanium dioxide had already been
known to attack stains and can be affixed to cotton, but activation
requires light from the ultraviolet spectrum, making the material
impractical. When the researchers added nitrogen and silver iodide to
the mix, however, two hours and a 1,000-watt lamp were all it took to
defeat a deep orange stain. The procedure should work on "almost all
organic pollutants," according to the researchers.
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