A new laundry detergent additive removes as much nitrogen oxides from the air as a car produces in a day. Now the latest lean greenhouse gas busting machine is you and that fetching ensemble! All you have to do to make a positive contribution to the environment is get dressed in the morning.
This amazing feat is achieved through a new laundry detergent additive known as Catalytic Clothing. Researchers at the University of Sheffield are creating an additive for your wash that contains particles of titanium dioxide. You only need to wash your clothing once in the additive as titanium oxide sticks to the fabric fibers tightly. When you walk around, the titanium oxide particles react with nitrogen oxide in the air and oxidise them. Next time you wash your clothing, the harmless oxidised particles are removed.
Titanium dioxide and the oxidized particles are completely harmless to the wearer. Just walking around on an average day, you can remove up to 5g of nitrogen oxides from the air which is about the same amount a car produces in a day.
Professor Tony Ryan, on the University of Sheffield team explains, “In Sheffield, for instance, if everyone washed their clothes in the additive, there would be no pollution problem caused by nitrogen oxides at all.”
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See a CatClo presentation here.