The wafer-thin, transparent gold plating converts sunlight into heat, ETH announced on Monday. This prevents moisture from condensing on the surface. The coating can be used, among other things, on eyeglass lenses and car windows.
When asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency, ETH researcher Iwan Hächler, who played an important role in driving the development, said that the special thing about the coating is that it selectively absorbs solar radiation. “Radiation in the visible range absorbs a large part of the invisible infrared radiation and, as a result, heats up, allowing it to pass through.” Unlike existing anti-fog sprays, this coating is also permanent, you only need to apply it once.
Products with the innovative coating will now be released. ETH Zurich has applied for a patent for the development. According to Iwan Hächler, it’s hard to say when the time will come. “But the technical requirements already exist. We used a coating method that is already used in industry,” said Hächler.
The gold required for plating should not make the product noticeably more expensive. The price of gold for coating a pair of glasses is around 20 cents.
(SDA)