Spray-On Glass…

Some of you will have read the various press pieces about German company Nanopool who have announced their production of spray-on glass. Their November press release states…

“SiO₂ – ultra thin layering” is the technical term for Liquid Glass.

The flexible and breathable glass coating is approximately 100 nanometres thick (500 times thinner than a human hair), and so it is completely undetectable. It is food safe, environmentally friendly … and it can be applied to almost any surface within seconds. When coated, all surfaces become easy to clean and anti-microbially protected.

“In essence, we extract molecules of SiO₂ (the primary constituent of glass) from quartz sand, and then we add the molecules to water or ethanol. Unfortunately, as they say in the movies, if I told you any more …..” Neil comments further, “The really clever part is that there are no added nano-particles, resins or additives – the coatings form and bond due to quantum forces.

[A nanometre is one billionth of a metre. The prefix nano is used to describe any of the sciences that deal with very tiny objects or materials.]

It would be amazingly useful stuff. It will stick to just about anything and will provide a flexible, easily cleaned surface that bacteria won’t stick to. My only concern is that all the information I can find out about it leads back to the same press release. It is apparently being used already in Germany but I cannot find any solid references to it. I also don’t like the idea that its bonding is due to ‘quantum forces’. That sounds rather like they don’t really know how it works. I shall be watching the story with interest but I have my doubts that we will see it in common use any time soon. I hope I am wrong.

Silicon and oxygen are non-metal elements. Most non-metal oxides are gases at room temperature and form acidic solutions in water e.g. carbon dioxide or sulphur dioxide. Silicon dioxide (quartz or sand) is unusual in that it is a solid at room temperature and does not dissolve in water and therefore cannot have a pH.

All metal oxides are solids at room temperature. The oxides of reactive metals dissolve in water to form alkaline (metal hydroxide) solutions. Less reactive metal oxides are not soluble although they will still react with acids to form a metal salt and water.

Questions…

1. What are the three most abundant elements on Earth?
2. What would be the approximate pH of solutions of
   • sodium hydroxide?
   • sulphur dioxide?
   • magnesium hydroxide?
3. What is the approximate width of a human hair?
4. What is the approximate width of a typical human cell such as a cheek cell?
5. Name a disease caused by a bacterium.