A spot of sunshine is all it could take to clean your clothes within minutes, as scientists, including those of Indian-origin, have developed a low-cost, efficient way to grow nanostructures on textiles that can degrade organic matter when exposed to light. The research from RMIT University in Australia paves the way towards nanoenhanced textiles that can spontaneously clean themselves of stains and grime simply by being put under a light bulb or worn out in the Sun. The process developed by the team has a variety of applications for catalysis-based industries such as agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and natural products, and could be easily scaled up to industrial levels. “The advantage of textiles is they already have a 3D structure so they are great at absorbing light, which in turn speeds up the process of degrading organic matter,” Rajesh Ramanathan from RMIT University said. “There’s more work to do to before we can start throwing out our washing machines, but this advance lays a strong foundation for the future development of fully self-cleaning textiles,” he said. The researchers including Dipesh Kumar and Vipul Bansal, also from RMIT University, worked with copper and silver-based nanostructures, which are known for their ability to absorb visible light. When the nanostructures are exposed to light, they receive an energy boost that creates “hot electrons.” These “hot electrons” release a burst of energy that enables the nanostructures to degrade organic matter. The challenge for researchers has been to bring the concept out of the lab by working out how to build these nanostructures on an industrial scale and permanently attach them to textiles. The team’s approach was to grow the nanostructures directly onto the textiles by dipping them into a few solutions, resulting in the development of stable nanostructures within 30 minutes. When exposed to light, it took less than six minutes for some of the nano-enhanced textiles to spontaneously clean themselves. “Our next step will be to test our nano-enhanced textiles with organic compounds that could be more relevant to consumers, to see how quickly they can handle common stains like tomato sauce or wine,” Mr. Ramanathan said
What can be inferred from the given passage?
This has been asked in Question Paper
SBI Clerk Prelims 2016
AttemptMore Questions From Paper
Chapters. Reading Comprehension
What does the phrase ‘scaled up’ mean?
Chapters. Reading Comprehension
According to the given passage what to you mean by Catalysis-based industries?
Chapters. Reading Comprehension
Which of the following can be the title of the given passage
Chapters. Reading Comprehension
Which of the following option(s) is/are TRUE in the context of the given passage?
i) 3D structures have ability to absorb light.
ii) Nanostructures take 36 minutes to clean themselves.
iii) We are on the verge of a new revolution in textile industry.
Chapters. Reading Comprehension
Choose the word/group of words which is MOST OPPOSITE in meaning of the word/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.
Grime
Chapters. Reading Comprehension
Choose the word/group of words which is MOST SIMILAR in meaning to the word/group of words printed in bold as used in the passage.
Relevant
Chapters. Reading Comprehension
Spontaneously
Chapters. Reading Comprehension
Degrade
Exams
IIT JEE
Support