On a Wet Day You Can See Forever
A foggy windshield can drive a motorist nuts. The thousands of tiny water droplets that form on the glass scatter light, making oncoming traffic hard to see. Most solutions don't work: Antifogging sprays are short lived, and windshields coated with titanium dioxide require exposure at least every few hours to either ultraviolet or visible lightCourtesy Michael Rubner/MIT Antifogging glass covers the lower left area of this photo. The right and top have normal glass. |
An Australian company called XeroCoat is already a lap ahead with a similar product. The company's founders, Paul Meredith and Michael Harvey, used porous silica to make permanent antifogging coatings that work on various plastic products as well as on glass. Rubner's coating requires curing at 932 degrees Fahrenheit, too hot for most plastics.
The coatings made by both groups are antireflective as well as antifogging: They reduce glare and allow more than 99 percent of light to pass through the glass. (Normal glass scatters about 8 percent of light.) The basic materials for both products are dirt cheap, Rubner says, and the manufacturing process is simple. Before long, we may all be driving a little more safely, and sanely.
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