Viscoelastic solid-repellent coatings for extreme water saving and global sanitation

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorWang, Jing
dc.contributor.authorWang, Lin
dc.contributor.authorSun, Nan
dc.contributor.authorTierney, Ross
dc.contributor.authorLi, Hui
dc.contributor.authorCorsetti, Margo
dc.contributor.authorWilliams, Leon
dc.contributor.authorWong, Pak Kin
dc.contributor.authorWong, Tak-Sing
dc.date.accessioned2020-02-19T15:20:14Z
dc.date.available2020-02-19T15:20:14Z
dc.date.issued2019-11-18
dc.description.abstractWater scarcity threatens over half of the world’s population, yet over 141 billion litres of fresh water are used globally each day for toilet flushing. This is nearly six times the daily water consumption of the population in Africa. The toilet water footprint is so large primarily because large volumes of water are necessary for the removal of human faeces; human faeces is viscoelastic and sticky in nature, causing it to adhere to conventional surfaces. Here, we designed and fabricated the liquid-entrenched smooth surface (LESS)—a sprayable non-fouling coating that can reduce cleaning water consumption by ~90% compared with untreated surfaces due to its extreme repellency towards liquids, bacteria and viscoelastic solids. Importantly, LESS-coated surfaces can repel viscoelastic solids with dynamic viscosities spanning over nine orders of magnitude (that is, three orders of magnitude higher than has previously been reported for other repellent materials). With an estimated 1 billion or more toilets and urinals worldwide, incorporating LESS coating into sanitation systems will have significant implications for global sanitation and large-scale wastewater reduction for sustainable water management.en_UK
dc.identifier.citationWang J, Wang L, Sun N, et al., (2019) Viscoelastic solid-repellent coatings for extreme water saving and global sanitation. Nature Sustainability, Volume 2, Issue 12, December 2019, pp. 1097-1105en_UK
dc.identifier.cris25293326
dc.identifier.issn2398-9629
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0421-0
dc.identifier.urihttp://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/15150
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherNature Researchen_UK
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/*
dc.titleViscoelastic solid-repellent coatings for extreme water saving and global sanitationen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Viscoelastic_solid-repellent_coatings-water_saving-2019.pdf
Size:
3.41 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.63 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Staff publications (SWEE)