If you think that humanity has not made enough progress over the last 5,000 years of documented history, here’s something that might make you believe in technological advancement.
Researchers have come up with a slippery coating that prevents feces from sticking to the inside of the toilets.
The research team from Penn State University who created the coating say their effort wasn’t just intended to make your toilet look a bit shinier.
The reason behind developing the coating was to save the large amounts of water wasted in cleaning the toilets.
The researchers said that the new coating will require only 10% of the water it takes to flush the traditional toilets.
It will also be useful in preventing bacteria from growing in the toilet that are responsible for creating the awful smell and spreading diseases.
The coating that’s known as liquid-entrenched smooth surface, or LESS, will ‘dramatically reduce’ water required to flush the toilets and can be applied to the existing toilets within five minutes.
The research that was published in Nature Sustainability says that the coating can be sprayed on to a toilet and has a life of 500 flushes.
Associate professor Tak-Sing Wong, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, told Penn State News: “Our team has developed a robust bio-inspired, liquid, sludge- and bacteria-repellent coating that can essentially make a toilet self-cleaning.
“Poop sticking to the toilet is not only unpleasant to users, but it also presents serious health concerns. Our goal is to bring impactful technology to the market so everyone can benefit.”
The coating is made by mixing two sprays and has a very intricate working mechanism.
Jing Wang, co-researcher with professor Wong, explained the mechanism of action of the coating, saying: “When it dries, the first spray grows molecules that look like little hairs, with a diameter of about 1,000,000 times thinner than a human’s.”
Speaking of the lab trials of the coating, Wang said: “When we put that coating on a toilet in the lab and dump synthetic fecal matter on it, it just completely slides down and nothing sticks to it [the toilet].”
Replaced!