The world of construction has moved beyond brick and mortar.
Curtain glass walls and aluminium panels are not the end of material
advancement. The construction industry is looking at materials that push their
performance. Researchers are mimicking nature and modifying material behaviour
that will enhance building function and make maintenance easier.
Wilhelm Barthlott, a German Scientist, studied “the behaviour of
how lotus leaves pearled off the water from its surface”. After careful study
of the microstructure of the leaf, he patented a technique called the ‘Lotus
effect’. This technology was built into a new kind of paint with a brand name
Sto-Lotuscan colour. When this paint is applied on a surface, it never allows
water drops to stay. As a result, the surfaces are kept clean and dry.
They give no room for micro-organisms to grow. No algae to dirty
your painted wall.Lotus leaves inspired another group of Engineers differently.
Engineers at Ohio University found the waxy lotus leaf useful in designing
self-cleaning windows. Through a rigorous study of the leaf structure, Engineers
have arrived at a suitable density and pattern of placing tiny bumps on glass
surface. These bumps imitate the leaf structure. Since, they are smaller than a
droplet and closely laid, they do not allow the droplets to stay. The drops
roll off keeping the surface clean.
Adrew R. Parker and Chris Lawrence, in the United Kingdom, studied
the African Namib beetle to develop a new hybrid. The Namib beetle lives in the
desert and depends on fog for its water. It positions its body at 45 degree and
spreads its bumpy wing against the wind that carries moisture. The moisture
collects on the surface as minute droplets, which then combine and roll as a
water droplet directly into the mouth of the beetle. The Scientists have
developed a surface with small-waxed glass beads imitating the beetel wings.
When held at angle these surfaces can collect water from the fog. These
surfaces also come very useful, where the temperature difference between inside
and outside is significant.
The state of art advancement is the nanomaterials. Nanomaterials
or nanocrystaline materials are those possessing very small sizes of grains in the
order of a billionth of metre. When the materials are produced with such small
grain sizes their property changes. They can radically change to provide useful
innovations. For example; porcelain that has excellent thermal properties but
brittles; nano processing can become so flexible that it can function as tiny
spring in a computer and take care of the heat that is produced.
Italcementi, the big cement manufacturer in Italy, produced a
special type of cement for the famed Dives in Misericordia Church project in
Rome. Richard Mier, the American Architect, who designed this Church, is known
for his obsessive use of white surfaces. The new invention promised him that
his designed white concrete surfaces would always remain white; thanks to the
new white cement that contains titanium dioxide. Titanium oxide with photo
catalytic action breaks various organic air pollutants that touch the cement
surface. It constantly oxidizes the pollutants into carbon dioxide. As a
result, the pollutants never get a layer to stick to. The surface remains clean
and white. The same catalytic properties of titanium oxide are used in some of
the buildings in Japan like Marunouchi building to reduce the discolouring of
its walls due to pollution.
Two Researchers in Australia pushed this concept little further.
The photocatalytic of titanium requires sunrays. Hence, such self-cleaning
properties of titanium oxide could only be mobilised for external use. Rose
Amal and Professor Michael Brungs of University of New South Wales have
developed a nano material with titanium oxide that can work with interior
light. Lab tests have shown when this material is applied over tiles and
curtains and they can activate titanium oxide. As a result, microbes like
Escherchia coli are killed and other organic compounds are disintegrated. This,
it is hoped, will lead to designing a self cleaning bathroom.
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