Defrosting car windows is a frequent cause of headaches for winter drivers, but now researchers have come up with a solar-powered solution.
Thomas Schutzius at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues have developed a nanoscale-thick coating made from gold and titanium dioxide. The tightly-packed gold particles are good absorbers of sunlight and embedding them in titanium dioxide enhances this absorption.
The material fights ice by concentrating solar energy into a small volume, raising the temperature at its surface and leading to rapid defrosting.
See full article