Spray-on liquid glass - maybe next antifoul?

[ImaginaryNumber]

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.

http://www.physorg.com/news184310039.html

[troy2000]

Sounds too good to be true. If it were April 1st, I'd be wondering....

[messabout]

The text makes me think of some of those TV pitchmen. Let us hope that this stuff is as good as claimed. There are huge implications that go beyond cost effectivness. Among other things, if we can use less soap and other cleaning solutions, then it is good for the earth; ecologically speaking.

If this stuff will reduce the adherance of marine organisms, its going to make barnacles most unhappy.

[RHough]

A few years ago a spray on ceramic coating was going to be the new anti-fouling ... or so the company claimed.

The theory was that it was so hard and so smooth that marine growth would just slough off when the boat was used. The same stuff was used to make buildings easier to clean after they were hit by graffiti. Paint would dry on the surface but not bold to it.

The company came up to the shop that was doing the bottom on my sailboat and instructed the painters on how to apply the ceramic.

No doubt, the boat was very fast though the water. However, the tenacity of marine life got the better of the ceramic coating in three weeks.

Of course anti-fouling paint would not adhere to the coating ... it had to be sanded off before the bottom paint could be applied.

The claims made for this liquid glass sound very much like the claims made for the ceramic coating. I'd suggest someone get a sample and see just how it resists marine critters before I got my hopes up.

I was lucky, the ceramic was supplied free in hopes of generating a market in Canada, it only cost me the labour of the prep and apply, then a second prep and apply for anti-fouling ... I wasn't out $800 qt for the ceramic ...

Buyer beware.

R

[TollyWally]

This stuff has got quite a buzz in the last week or so. It sounds like it may change all sorts of things. We'll all have to take a wait and see attitude and see how reality stacks up against hype. Most of the time you can bet against hype as a percentage player. I'm modestly hopeful this might be the new nylon etc. etc. etc.

[CDK]

Originally Posted by ImaginaryNumber

Liquid glass was invented in Turkey and the patent is held by Nanopool, a family-owned German company.

This line alone already marks the product as dubious and a possible hoax.

Nothing useful has ever been invented in Turkey, most patents concern products or processes that do not work, the word "nano" is fashionable among con artists and "family-owned German company" can be anything from retirement home to a sheep farm.

Liquid glass is over a century old, known as water-glass or sodium silicate, a very cheap chemical substance used for impregnating walls against moisture, fireproofing wood and paper and in many industrial processes.

Glass, even the real stuff you are looking through or buy your whiskey in, has no anti fouling properties. Dirt clings to it and detergents erode the surface over time, so cleaning only gets harder.

[Zed]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...g-1885158.html

[CDK]

Zed, as I have written many times already, the internet doesn't supply any proof about the truth of a claim or statement. It only confirms you are not alone in your belief/disbelief.

http://carletonknight.blogspot.com/2...se-public.html

Btw, the company HQ is a home address in a tiny German village, so it is definitely not a sheep farm.

[Zed]

I don't really care what you have written before!

It's just a relevant article posted without comment.

Take it for what its worth.

[Asleep Helmsman]

My first thought is silicosis. Appliers be ware.

[Kirbinator]

This strikes me "Not enough of the right information in the wrong hands can be dangerous" not sure who said that first

[capt vimes]

Originally Posted by Asleep Helmsman

My first thought is silicosis. Appliers be ware.

i had exactly the same thought...

[Asleep Helmsman]

It’s a shame how some products are so deadly to work with, and are otherwise very beneficial.

Take asbestos, it’s not like they said “Hey I got an idea, let’s kill a million people.”

Another wonder product that is going require some serious precautions is carbon nano tubes. Apparently they are so small they penetrate the cell membrane, and corrupt the actual DNA molecule.

Luckily, today there is a body of evidence of similar products and their harmful effects; industry now has a harder time claiming ignorance.

[CDK]

The spokesman of Nanopool has already admitted that there is absolutely no nano-technology involved, so there is nothing to worry about.

They just used the word because it sounds good and the SiO2 layer deposited by the spray is so thin that you cannot see, feel or measure it. According to the press bulletin, they "extract SiO2" from sand (very easy because sand is nothing else but SiO2) and mix it with isopropyl-alcohol, which is a pleasantly smelling cleaning liquid used in many other sprays like tape head cleaner, contact cleaner and stuff to wipe a toilet seat with.

[troy2000]

Originally Posted by CDK

The spokesman of Nanopool has already admitted that there is absolutely no nano-technology involved, so there is nothing to worry about.

They just used the word because it sounds good and the SiO2 layer deposited by the spray is so thin that you cannot see, feel or measure it. According to the press bulletin, they "extract SiO2" from sand (very easy because sand is nothing else but SiO2) and mix it with isopropyl-alcohol, which is a pleasantly smelling cleaning liquid used in many other sprays like tape head cleaner, contact cleaner and stuff to wipe a toilet seat with.

I still wouldn't recommend breathing it, though. Although if coating plants with it is as harmless to them as they say, I have to wonder whether there's really anything there at all.

I had a friend who was extolling the virtues of homeopathic remedies, and telling me they were so safe the FDA doesn't regulate them. I tried to explain to her that's because there's no active ingredients in them.

As Dr. Dean Edell once put it on his radio program, imagine taking an eyedropper and putting one drop of an active ingredient in a swimming pool. Mix it thoroughly, and use the eyedropper to put a drop of the water from it in a second swimming pool. Put a drop of water from that one into a third pool. Then take the water from the third pool, bottle it, and sell it as a homeopathic remedy. There's no measurable active ingredient left in it.

I'll be keeping track of this story, to see how it develops. If it does work, spray-on glass could be right handy....