Scientists create a toilet with no sticky edges

There is an unpleasant moment that people have had to live with more than once, namely, to clean those unpleasant “things” that remain stuck to the edges of the toilet bowl and from which the water cannot come off when flushed. The truth is that a group of scientists from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China is creating a toilet that moves poop.

The unique toilet is an abrasion-resistant 3D model inspired by tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthes), carnivorous plants that capture prey in cups of vase-shaped leaves; To help prey get into traps, plants secrete a slippery lubricant. Similarly, the researchers coated the surface of the toilet with a fatty oil that helped drain waste down and out of the toilet.

“When contaminants fall on a surface, they first hit the lubricating film, not the surface. [en sí]which can significantly reduce adherence,” the study authors write.

On a chemical level, this slippage is due to a material property called “hydrophobicity,” which is a measure of how well a material repels water. Human waste has a high moisture content, so a hydrophobic surface will help prevent feces from sticking.

Using a technique called selective laser sintering 3D printing, the team combined plastic beads and hydrophobic sand to create a solid toilet shell. Sintering is a chemical process that compacts and combines two types of solids without melting them; It is important to note that this creates a porous structure with many tiny gaps between solid particles. The researchers filled these holes with regular lubricating oil, which was distributed throughout the structure and covered the entire toilet bowl.