Scientists at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, have created a new type of ultra-slippery toilet bowl, which makes it impossible for anything to stick to it. The new toilet bowl design could eventually replace porcelain and ceramic toilets if scaled up.
Humans have relied on porcelain and ceramics for their toilets for centuries. Although it seems unlikely that we’ll see this material completely replaced anytime soon, if the scientists’ ultra-slippery toilet bowl takes off, it could give us a new material to rely on.
The ultra-slip toilet bowl was designed as a 3D printed item, and as a video demonstrated by new world It shows that almost nothing can stick to the pot. Even more interestingly, the researchers found that the toilet bowl remained slippery, even after using it several times and rubbing it with sandpaper.
One of the biggest advantages of having an ultra-slippery toilet bowl isn’t just its cleanliness. If nothing sticks to the bowl, that means we can also see a decrease in water usage to flush the toilet when using this type of material.
The researchers call it the Abrasion Resistant Ultra-Slide Flush Toilet (ARSFT), and it’s made using materials that easily flush complex liquids and viscous solids. However, these types of materials are usually easily broken by mechanical wear, which the researchers noted in a paper published in 2019. Advanced engineering materials.
However, the material used to make the ultra-slip toilet bowl can stand up to sandpaper and still be as slippery as before, which is quite an achievement. While it’s unlikely we’ll see this type of material replace our current toilets, it’s great to see what scientists can achieve in this particular field, and it’ll be interesting to see where they take this from here.
Perhaps we could see this substance used in lunar toilets sometime in the future.
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