Welcome back to Geeky Sunday, my weekly repost from the archives of my old blog, Geekystuff.co. This post was originally published on Geekystuff.co in January 2023. (Why am I moving Geekystuff.co posts?)
As a glasses wearer, my glasses fogging up is a pain in the arse.
Walking into a warm pub on a cold day and becoming instantly blinded by fog is so annoying.
It’s been commented by friends that I resemble Penfold from Danger Mouse looking for his glasses. As I have to take mine off and squint desperately trying to focus and find my friends.
I’ve often walked straight past where they are as I head towards blurry figures who I wrongly believe are the people I’m meeting.
Thankfully, scientists from ETH Zurich have come up with a permanent solution using a new transparent gold nanocoating that harnesses sunlight to heat the lenses of glasses, preventing them from fogging up in humid conditions.
The coating works by absorbing infrared energy from sunlight. ETH doctoral student Iwan Hächler explained.
Our coating absorbs a large proportion of the infrared radiation, which causes it to heat up – by up to 8 degrees Celsius.
Iwan Hächler – ETH doctoral student
As the vast majority of the visible light range of sunlight is unused, the coating remains transparent.
ETH has applied for a patent as the coating could have other uses, for example, car windscreens, and wing mirrors.
Obviously, one clear drawback to the coating is the energy source, Sunlight. For instance, I quite often go to the pub in the evening so this coating wouldn’t solve my Penfold problem. I’m sure the scientists will overcome this issue and maybe find a way to store the energy during daylight to be used when there’s no daylight.
In the meantime, I’ll struggle on with my foggy glasses.
Take Care
Mike
Who Wrote This?
Note: 3 years later and I’m still struggling with foggy glasses.