| Posted: January 18, 2008 |
Anti-pollen nanotechnology coats hit the stores in Japan |
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(Nanowerk News) In springtime, Japan can be murder for allergy sufferers. Everywhere you go, you can see people with red eyes and runny noses—and the streets are full of people walking around with surgical-style masks to keep the pollen out.
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But as anybody with allergies knows, the problem can continue even indoors. That's because pollen settles on hair and clothing and can easily be transported indoors.
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But this year, thanks to some innovative work by a couple of Japanese companies, things may not be as bad for some people.
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Apparel manufacturer Sanyo Shokai has released the first in a series of men's coats which are pollen-resistant. They're made from a fabric developed by Toray that's produced in a nanotechnology process that repels water and pollen.
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The new fabric is a high-density fabric (smooth surface, very little space between each string) with a special resin-treatment (utilizing Toray’s nanomatrix technology) to improve the Pollen- and water-resistance.
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A few years ago, Toray Industries, Inc. announced that it had succeeded in developing a nanotechnology processing technology that allows the formation of molecular arrangement and molecular assembly necessary to bring out further advanced functionalities in textile processing than the existing nano processing.
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Toray named this textile nanotechnology NanoMATRIX – basically a functional material coating consisting of nano-scale molecular assembly on each of the monofilament that forms the fabric (woven/knitted fabric.) The application of this technology is expected to lead to development of new functionalities, creation of complex functionalities, remarkable improvements in the existing functions (quality, durability etc) and expansion of usage in materials/application without losing the fabric’s texture.
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Toray succeeded in forming coatings in the order of 10 to 30nm on the surface as it became possible to control the state of molecular arrangement and/or assembly of functional materials on each of the monofilament in nano-scale sizes.
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If you're interested, they can be found in Sanyo Shokai shops in department stores around Japan for around ¥35,000 - ¥40,000.
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