You know I’ve said many times that science fiction is great stuff.  Because we just suspend reality just a smidge- and then create things that can one day be real.  Now, most sci-fi tomes deal with realities we hope come true (and some with dark visions, which serve as warnings if we screw things up badly), but I’m talking about technology dreaming, not the urban planning kind of sci-fi.

And, to be honest, that’s what creative engineers and scientists do all the time.  Really.

What do you think was happening when I envisioned my kidney design more than 5 decades ago?  Or, when I was developing that new dialysate?  Or a new toilet design? (I could go on, but it gets boring.)  In all of these projects, I was envisioning a reality that didn’t yet exist.

Let’s consider two of my older projects.

Way back in the early 1980s, I was retained (along with five or six other very creatives [that reads crazy as a loon] types) to work with Bell Labs.  Because they wanted to come up with some projects that would let them hit the ground running when they were split off from the “Baby Bells”.

One of those ideas involved one that still probably has merit.  (But, the capital costs are still somewhat high.)  I thought we could insert new mats (and rugs), along with a whole house vacuum, in people’s homes.  Then, with one phone call, we could have the vacuum engaged simultaneous to our charging the mats and rugs.  The applied electricity would generate a piezoelectric effect that would “liberate” the dirt from the rugs.  And, the homeowner would have a clean house.   We tried a few prototypes, but, given the recession that was underway, we determined the capital cost would be a problem.

The other project involved a home dry cleaning project.  Yes, back in the very early 80s (I had a VERY dirty mind, it seems), I developed a product you could drop into your dryer and get your clothes dry cleaned.  Unfortunately for my pocket book, the client decided to wait a decade and a half to bring it to market.

But, given those two products (ok- one prototype and one product), I read about a new development with great interest.   Drs.  Samuel Anderson, Mahsa Mohammadtaheri, Dipesh Kumar, Matthew Field, Rajesh Ramanathan, and Vipul Bansai of RMIT University (Australia) along with Dr. Anthony O’Mullane (Queensland University of Technology) just released their publication (early notice)-  Surface Plasmon Resonance:  Robust Nanostructured Silver and Copper Fabrics with Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance Property for Effective Visible Light Induced Reductive Catalysis.   Yes, that’s a mouthful.

What is it about?   These researchers are producing nano-enhanced fabrics (textiles) that can self-clean.  By applying light to the materials.   The researchers are trying to save precious water; about 20% of domestic residential water use is related to washing our clothers.  Another benefit of this textile development? Keeping microbes from infecting hospital garments- which means less chance for nosocomial infections.

The carbon and silver based nanostructures are grown directly onto the cotton fabric.   And, when these nanomaterials are exposed to light, they get “excited” and degrade organic materials.   And, those organic materials are really dirt or smelly materials.

The organics are shed pretty quickly, I might add.  In about five  (5) minutes, these copper coated fabrics were “clean”- in the dark; it took only 3 minutes under visible light.  The silver coated materials took 45 minutes in the dark and 30 minutes in the light; however, upon repeated exposure, the silver coated materials were cleaned much quicker.

How did they make these fabrics?  They soaked the cotton fibers in tin chloride (an acidic solution of same), followed by palladium salts (which coats the materials).  This is then followed by silver or copper salts that adhere to the palladium coating.

Now, there are still issues to conquer.  Because the copper textiles are reddish brown and the silver ones are brownish-black in color.  Not quite the fashion statements.

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