JBurd
New member
I have a nerdy question...I came across the wikipedia article about the Lotus Effect. The surface of the lotus leaf has a wax on it that repels water so well the water beads up to the point where only 0.6% of the water is touching the surface! These water droplets then roll around and literally pick UP dirt and carry it off the surface. They call it self-cleaning. Similarly, new windows (i believe) are purposefully made hydrophobic so they too will be self cleaning.
If this works so well in nature (and window manufacturing) why does the cleaning industry take the complete opposite approach and add wetting agents (ie surfactants) in order to break the water tension and spread it around more to achieve the same result (ie cleaning)??? Anybody who has used a water fed pole (with which the pure water has no surfactants) can attest to how much more difficult it is to rinse off hydrophobic glass.
If this works so well in nature (and window manufacturing) why does the cleaning industry take the complete opposite approach and add wetting agents (ie surfactants) in order to break the water tension and spread it around more to achieve the same result (ie cleaning)??? Anybody who has used a water fed pole (with which the pure water has no surfactants) can attest to how much more difficult it is to rinse off hydrophobic glass.