Researchers Develop A Special Toilet Coating To Maintain Its Cleanliness

Harin - Nov 20, 2019

To eliminate water wastage, researchers have come up with a special coating called "Less" that can be sprayed on the inside of the toilet.

A toilet, no matter how smart it becomes, can still waste water. Looking at our daily water consumption, there’s only a fraction of it is the amount of water that we drink. The rest is the amount of water that we use while taking a shower and using the toilet.

For a normal toilet, a maximum of 6 to 7 liters of water is flushed down per flushing. However, there may be an answer to this problem with this invention.

To eliminate water wastage, researchers have come up with a special coating that can be sprayed on the inside of the toilet. As a result, the poop will simply slide off, cut down the amount of water needed to flush it out.

This solution is called “Less” or liquid entrenched smooth surface. Penn State University’s researchers were the ones behind this invention. They believe that Less will not only reduce water wastage but also get rid of germs and foul odors.

The coating has two layers. The first, also the base layer, is filled with nanohairs. The second layer is covered in a special type of silicone oil that adheres to the nanohairs. It only takes a few minutes for the whole application process to complete.

The coating was then tested using artificial and actual human feces. During the test, from different heights, the researchers dropped the feces on a surface that is coated with Less. After that, they analyzed the amount of water needed to flush it out with colored dye.

While it takes less than 90% of the normal amount of water it consumed to wash off the artificial feces, the actual feces slid off right away, even when the coating was slightly worn off.

To test the durability of the coating, the researchers carried out several different tests. As a result, the found out that the effect will last for 500 flushes. However, the coating will need to be replaced after 50 urinations.

While the main objective of the coating is to save water, it will also help you maintain the cleanliness of your washing longer since it gets rid of germs.