Great update from one of our co-host, Jack Gregg, Boston

Researchers create anti-fogging, self-cleaning, glare-free glass

April 30, 2012

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/256604/scitech/science/researchers-create-anti-fogging-self-cleaning-glare-free-glass

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a new wonder glass that addresses the problems affecting ordinary glass such as fogging and glare.

 The secret lies in a process involving thin layers of material deposited on a surface and then selectively etched away.

 "The MIT team produced a surface covered with tiny cones, each five times taller than their width. This pattern prevents reflections, while at the same time repelling water from the surface," the MIT said.

 It added the surface textures on glass developed by the MIT team virtually eliminates reflections, producing glass that is "almost unrecognizable."

 Aside from the absence of glare, the new glass has a surface that causes water droplets to bounce right off, "like tiny rubber balls," and is self-cleaning.

 The researchers hope to have the glass made using a low-cost manufacturing process that could be applied to optical devices, the screens of smartphones and televisions, solar panels, car windshields and even windows in buildings.

 The technology is described in a paper co-authored by mechanical engineering graduate students Kyoo-Chul Park and Hyungryul Choi, former postdoc Chih-Hao Chang SM 2004, PhD 2008 (now at North Carolina State University), chemical engineering professor Robert Cohen, and mechanical engineering professors Gareth McKinley and George Barbastathis.

 Park said photovoltaic panels can lose as much as 40 percent of their efficiency within six months as dust and dirt accumulate on their surfaces.

 But he said a solar panel protected by the new self-cleaning glass would have much less of a problem.

 Also, the panel would be more efficient because more light would be transmitted through its surface, instead of being reflected away — especially when the sun’s rays are inclined at a sharp angle to the panel.

 During early mornings and late afternoons, conventional glass might reflect away more than 50 percent of the light, whereas an anti-reflection surface would reduce the reflection to a negligible level, the report said.