Posted on 02/02/2010 7:40:24 PM PST by LibWhacker
(PhysOrg.com) -- Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products.
The liquid glass spray (technically termed “SiO2 ultra-thin layering”) consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the manufacturers, liquid glass has a long-lasting antibacterial effect because microbes landing on the surface cannot divide or replicate easily.
Liquid glass was invented in Turkey and the patent is held by Nanopool, a family-owned German company. Research on the product was carried out at the Saarbrücken Institute for New Materials. Nanopool is already in negotiations in the UK with a number of companies and with the National Health Service, with a view to its widespread adoption.
The liquid glass spray produces a water-resistant coating only around 100 nanometers (15-30 molecules) thick. On this nanoscale the glass is highly flexible and breathable. The coating is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids. UK project manager with Nanopool, Neil McClelland, said soon almost every product you purchase will be coated with liquid glass.
Food processing companies in Germany have already carried out trials of the spray, and found sterile surfaces that usually needed to be cleaned with strong bleach to keep them sterile needed only a hot water rinse if they were coated with liquid glass. The levels of sterility were higher for the glass-coated surfaces, and the surfaces remained sterile for months.
Other organizations, such as a train company and a hotel chain in the UK, and a hamburger chain in Germany, are also testing liquid glass for a wide range of uses. A year-long trial of the spray in a Lancashire hospital also produced “very promising” results for a range of applications including coatings for equipment, medical implants, catheters, sutures and bandages. The war graves association in the UK is investigating using the spray to treat stone monuments and grave stones, since trials have shown the coating protects against weathering and graffiti. Trials in Turkey are testing the product on monuments such as the Ataturk Mausoleum in Ankara.
The liquid glass coating is breathable, which means it can be used on plants and seeds. Trials in vineyards have found spraying vines increases their resistance to fungal diseases, while other tests have shown sprayed seeds germinate and grow faster than untreated seeds, and coated wood is not attacked by termites. Other vineyard applications include coating corks with liquid glass to prevent “corking” and contamination of wine. The spray cannot be seen by the naked eye, which means it could also be used to treat clothing and other materials to make them stain-resistant. McClelland said you can “pour a bottle of wine over an expensive silk shirt and it will come right off”.
In the home, spray-on glass would eliminate the need for scrubbing and make most cleaning products obsolete. Since it is available in both water-based and alcohol-based solutions, it can be used in the oven, in bathrooms, tiles, sinks, and almost every other surface in the home, and one spray is said to last a year.
Liquid glass spray is perhaps the most important nanotechnology product to emerge to date. It will be available in DIY stores in Britain soon, with prices starting at around £5 ($8 US). Other outlets, such as many supermarkets, may be unwilling to stock the products because they make enormous profits from cleaning products that need to be replaced regularly, and liquid glass would make virtually all of them obsolete.
ping
Thanks for the ping!
Same website, right side of page. They have it for sale.
“Glass itself is a liquid”
True, but most people won’t believe it.
Take a 60 year old piece of plate glass and measure it top and bottom and you will find that it has settled over the years with the bottom being thicker.
Greeeeeat!
Something ELSE for the muslims to hate us for.
There was a show on “paint on” TV screens. I forget how, but electro-sensitive bits were added to a VERY thin film of plastic. The plastic was flexible and still showed the picture. They then spoke of imbedding it into paints and covering entire buildings, walls, etc. with it. So - add it to this spray on glass. (Or cover the building with the electro-paint and THEN cover with the glass).
Interesting questions BUMP!
Nope. That's the urban legend. Check out that link.
In other words, while some antique windowpanes are thicker at the bottom, there are no statistical studies to show that all or most antique windowpanes are thicker at the bottom than at the top. The variations in thickness of antique windowpanes has nothing to do with whether glass is a solid or a liquid; its cause lies in the glass manufacturing process employed at the time, which made the production of glass panes of constant thickness quite difficult.
Wouldn't it be interesting if this, and many other claims, turn out to be true. If a whole new world of items was coming out of the nanotechnology industry? Maybe even more than just that industry. Maybe in the energy field.
And the world leaders are trying to rake in as much dough as they can before it all hits?
Perhaps this is a byproduct of cold fusion? Same level of hype. Maybe there’ll be something to it, but ingesting it concerns me.
Maybe the next Bond mobile will go green and spray liquid glass instead of oil.
Slippery when dry.
“Glass itself is a liquid”
So is a popsicle.
Hah! I know what you’re thinking, but Mom sez yer still gonna haveta take a bath. Nice try. BTT.
Yes, it is. But, at room temperature, it's damn near frozen solid.
Please explain?
This world will have a serious GOI problem if this product actually hits the market.
/semiconductor humor
(who gets this joke?)
That’s the problem I have with the ASTM test. Apparently, they define a liquid as having flow at 100F. Water would pass as a liquid at 100F, but fail as a liquid if the test were run above 130F or below 32F. The temp chosen for determination of a liquid seems arbitrary.
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