A Window That Cleans Itself? IIT Students Have Made It Possible!

By Aishhwariya Subramanian

January 28, 2017

A Window That Cleans Itself? A Material That Doesn’t Need Dusting? IIT Students Have Made It Possible!

Working with nanoscience, researchers from IIT, Kharagpur, have developed a self-cleaning surface that will have real-world implications far beyond clean windows.

Hate wasting away weekends to dusting windows? Well, a team from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, has developed a technique to create nanostructures which have self-cleaning properties. This low-cost solution, according to researchers is the first of its kind in the world.

According to a report in the institute’s website, Dr Nandini Bhadaru’s technique will have many real-world implications apart from helping the lazy keep their homes clean. The research team is lead by Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee, faculty at the Dept. of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

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In fact this can be the answer for solar cell panel street lights which will not only become easier to maintain but also become antireflective because of the presence of nanostructures.

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Photo source: Facebook

So, how these structures work? It is water and oil repellent. It acts like a lotus leaf that allows water to roll off its surface along with the accumulated dust. Such surfaces will find real-world applications in optoelectronic devices, plastic solar cells, biological scaffolds etc.

What makes this solution unique is that according to the scientists, these nanostructures are going to be extremely low-cost compared to their counterparts (Rs 100 when made through large-scale production when it would cost Rs 30,000 to Rs 1 lakh for the same area with other materials).

In 2016, Nandini was awarded the prestigious European Materials Research Society’s (E-MRS’s) Young Scientist Award for her research and contribution to materials science. This solution is one among the many products being developed and patented using nanoscience that can be applied in a wide range of areas including electronics such as mobile phones and cancer therapeutics.

Watch an interview of Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee and Dr. Nandini Bhandaru

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