The university believes the additive could be commercially available in two years.
CatClo is a liquid additive that contains microscopic, pollution-eating particles that will attach very firmly to the fabric so that only a single wash in the additive is required.
The CatClo particles react with the nitrogen oxides in the air and oxidise them in the fabric. This process makes the nitrogen oxides colourless, odourless and harmless. They will then either be dissipated by sweat or removed in the next wash.
Nitrogen oxides produced by road vehicle exhausts are a major source of ground-level air pollution in towns and cities. The researchers say that one person wearing clothes treated with CatClo would be able to remove around 5g of nitrogen oxides from the air in the course of an average day – roughly equivalent to the amount produced each day by the average family car.
Professor Tony Ryan of the University of Sheffield said: “The development of the additive is just one of the advances we’re making in the field of photocatalytic materials – materials that, in the presence of light, catalyse chemical reactions. Through CatClo, we aim to turn clothes into a catalytic surface to purify air.”
The research received support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
