Science & technology | Smart coatings

A golden sandwich that demists your windscreen

It is a clever use of nanotechnology

Rain on a car window and city lights reflecting on a wet street
A mist that won’t be missedImage: Getty Images

As the northern hemisphere’s winter arrives, the problem of fogged-up car windscreens becomes more pressing for drivers. When humid air hits a surface colder than it is the water vapour it carries condenses onto that surface as myriad tiny droplets. These scatter light at random. The result, if the surface is transparent, looks to a human eye like fog. Depending on what is fogged, be it windows, spectacle lenses or windscreens, that can be a curiosity, a nuisance or a serious hazard.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Layering it on”

From the December 24th 2022 edition

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