Cutting through the fog
Preventing glass from fogging or frosting up is a longstanding challenge with myriad applications: eyeglasses, cameras, microscopes, mirrors and refrigerated displays, to name but a few. While there have been many advances in meeting this challenge, so far there has been no systematic way of testing different coatings and materials to see how effectively they work under real-world conditions.Now, a team of MIT researchers has developed such a testing method, and used it to find a coating that outperforms others not only in preventing foggy buildups, but also in maintaining good optical properties without distortion.The new approach is detailed in a paper in the journal ACS Nano, written by Michael Rubner, the TDK Professor of Polymer Materials Science and Engineering; Robert Cohen, the Raymond A. and Helen E. St. Laurent Professor of Chemical Engineering; doctoral student Hyomin Lee; and recent MIT graduate Maria Alcaraz.“When people want to tackle the fogging...