Who wants to. . . SCRUB SOME DIRTY TOILETS!?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Thank heavens for Nusret Celik from Erciyes University in Turkey and team. They created a clear, silicone-based coating that makes toilets slippery! To test it, they slicked it onto half the inside of a toilet bowl. Mixtures of sterilized urine and bacteria were poured down.
Results? Almost NO bacteria grew on the toilet’s coated side! Think one hundred THOUSAND times LESS bacteria than on the untreated side. The coating is liquid-repellant, meaning urine – and UH… bacteria – slides right off! It remained intact for nearly four hundred flushes!
This slippery coating is a low-cost, effective way to sanitize surfaces, including public toilets!
This should make our Dear John letters just a little nicer.
Reference: Celik, N., Sahin, F., Ruzi, M., Ceylan, A., Butt, H.-J., & Onses, M. S. (2023). Mechanochemical Activation of Silicone for Large-Scale Fabrication of Anti-Biofouling Liquid-like Surfaces. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 15(46), 54060–54072. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.3c11352sani