Researchers at at RMIT University in Australia have developed a cheap, efficient way to grow special copper- and silver-based nanostructures on textiles that can degrade organic matter when exposed to light.
The nanostructures absorb visible light (via localized surface plasmon resonance — collective electron-charge oscillations in metallic nanoparticles that are excited by light), generating high-energy (“hot”) electrons that cause the nanostructures to act as catalysts for chemical reactions that degrade organic matter.
Nano-enhanced textiles clean themselves with light
