Now you see it … this car speedometer cover with two anti-reflective circular surface areas was manufactured in just one step

If you have a mobile phone, laptop or large screen TV, you’ll understand how annoying it is when sunlight glare renders your screen unviewable. It can even cost you a ticket if that glare hits your dashboard and you can’t see how fast you’re going. And for people who wear spectacles, glare off the lenses can be debilitating. But now scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg, Germany, have developed a new nanocoating for use on displays and eyeglasses that is not only perfectly non-reflecting, but is also scratch-proof and easy to clean. And where did the inspiration come from… would you believe moths?

The insect world revolves around survival of the fittest. As moths search for food at dusk they have to hide from predators. In order to stay camouflaged, the moth’s facet eyes are perfectly non-reflective, while other insects’ eyes may shimmer and give them away.

The Fraunhofer scientists say tiny protuberances, smaller than the wavelength of light, form a periodic structure on the surface of the moth’s eyes. This nanostructure creates a gentle transition between the refractive indices of the air and the cornea. The result is much reduced reflection and a moth that lives to fight another day.

The process

Whereas conventional methods apply an anti-reflective coating in a separate step after production, the Fraunhofer scientists have modified conventional injection molding to impart the desired nanostructure onto the surface during the process, obviating the need for a separate process step. The researchers have developed a hard material coating that reproduces the optically-effective surface structure.

“We use this to coat the molding tools. When the viscous polymer melt is injected into the mold, the nanostructures are transferred directly to the component,” says Dr Frank Burmeister, project manager at the IWM. “Because no second process step is required, manufacturers achieve an enormous cost saving and also increase efficiency.

“Normally, the component would have to undergo an additional separate process to apply the anti-reflex coating,” says Burmeister.

Normal plexiglass and some anti-reflex coatings are particularly sensitive and scratch easily, but the scientists are producing wipe-resistant and scratch-proof surfaces. For this purpose the injection mold is additionally flooded with an ultra-thin organic polyurethane substance.

The substance fills every crevice and hardens, like a two-component adhesive, resulting in an extremely thin nanocoating of polyurethane on which the optically effective surface structures, which are just one ten-thousandth of a millimeter thick, are also reproduced.

The auto industry will be the next beneficiaries of this technology as the scientists aim to develop components that are not only attractive to look at but also hard-wearing and easy to clean.

This concentrator photovoltaic unit at IBM Research is being used to collect data to optimize scale up to industrial systems

In spite of the technological age we live in it is reported that one-in-five people on this planet still don’t have access to clean drinking water. To help correct this imbalance, a new, energy-efficient desalination plant with an expected production capacity of 30,000 cubic meters per day will be built in the city of Al Khafji, Saudi Arabia, to serve its 100,000 people. Known more for its computers, IBM has joined forces with KACST (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology) to build the plant that will be powered by ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic (UHCPV) technology – a system with a concentration greater than 1,500 suns.

According to KACST scientists, the two most commonly used methods for seawater desalination are thermal technology and reverse osmosis. Both methods are high energy users with costs ranging from 2.5 to 5.5 Saudi Riyals per cubic meter (around US$1.50). So the IBM-KACST team is also working to improve nanomembrane technology that filters out salts as well as potentially harmful toxins in water while using less energy than other forms of water purification. The organizations say that by combining solar power with the new nanomembrane, they will be able to significantly reduce the cost of desalinating seawater at these plants.

Chlorine used in reverse osmosis to remove salt and other harmful chemicals from sea water breaks down the membranes that are used for filtration and, over time, the membranes are fouled by unwanted organic and biological molecules and particles. So researchers from IBM and KACST developed chlorine-resistant and fouling-resistant polymers that increase the permeability of the membranes without sacrificing selectivity.

IBM and KACST are also working together to develop a solar concentrator system by adapting IBM’s microprocessor cooling technology that, when combined with other initiatives, will hopefully bring down the cost of photovoltaics for producing solar energy.

“Currently, Saudi Arabia is the largest producer of desalinated water in the world, and we continue to invest in new ways of making access to fresh water more affordable,” said Dr Turki Al Saud, vice president for research institutes, KACST. “Water has the first priority in the Science, Technology and Innovation Plan of the Kingdom, overseen by KACST.”

IBM says that the Saudi’s goal is to ramp up the number of desalination plants in order to provide fresh water for one million people in the coming years.

The team says that because more than 97 percent of the world’s water is in the oceans, turning salt water into fresh water cost effectively and energy efficiently offers tremendous potential for addressing the growing worldwide demand for clean water, which is growing faster than the population rate.

“Our collaborative research with KACST has led to innovative technologies in the areas of solar power and of water desalination,” said Sharon Nunes, vice president, IBM Big Green Innovations. “Using these new technologies, we will create energy-efficient systems we believe can be implemented across Saudi Arabia and around the world.”

In February 2008, IBM and KACST signed a multi-year collaborative research agreement, under which scientists from IBM and KACST work side by side at IBM Research labs in New York and California as well as at the KACST/IBM Nanotechnology Center of Excellence in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The IBM and Saudi researchers plan to start work on a pilot plant utilizing the technology later this year with a view to eventually providing an economical means of producing clean water in parts of the world where it is needed.