Laundry additive could make your clothes purify air

It was through a weird and wonderful coincidence on BBC Radio 4 that we met to discuss quantum mechanics and plastic packaging, resulting in the Wonderland Project, where we created disappearing gowns and bottles as a metaphor for a planet that is going the same way.

Spurred by this collaborative way of working, Wonderland led to Catalytic Clothing, a liquid laundry additive. The idea came out of conversations about how we could harness the surface of our clothing and the power of fashion to communicate complex scientific ideas – and so began the campaign for clean air.

How it works

Catalytic Clothing (CatClo) uses existing technology in a radical new way. Photocatalytic surface treatments that break down airborne pollutants are widely applied to urban spaces, in concrete, on buildings and self-cleaning glass. The efficacy is greatly increased when applied to clothing – not only is there a large surface area, but there is also a temperature gradient creating a constant flux of air, and movement through walking creates our own micro-wind, so catalysing ourselves makes us the most effective air purifiers of them all.

CatClo contains nanoparticles of titania (TiO2) a thousand times finer than a human hair. When clothes are laundered through the washing process, particles are deposited onto the fibres of the fabric. When the catalysed clothes are worn, light shines on the titanium particles and it excites the electrons on the particle surface. These electrons cause oxygen molecules to split creating free-radicals that then react with water to make hydrogen peroxide. This then bleaches out the volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides (NOx) that are polluting the atmosphere.

The whole process is sped up when people, wearing the clothes, are walking down the street. The collective power of everyone wearing clothes treated with CatClo is extraordinary. If the whole population of a city such as Sheffield was to launder their clothes at home with a product containing CatClo technology they would have the power to remove three tonnes per day of harmful NOx pollution.

Why is this technology important?

The EU standard for NOx levels is 40 micrograms per cubic metre (40 µg m-3) but many of our cities now outstrip acceptable safe levels. The scale of our problem with pollution was highlighted this April, with headlines reporting that schools in London were banning children from playing outside due to smog attributed to a Saharan dust cloud.

Air quality is such a serious health issue that the mayor of London's air quality strategy states it is a contributory factor in the premature deaths of approximately 4,300 Londoners per year. This is in line with UK national estimates of approximately 50,000 premature deaths.

The exciting thing about CatClo is that the technology is delivered through the laundry process, and doesn't require consumers to buy special clothes or necessarily special products. But it does depend on mass take up – the more people walking around our cities in catalysed clothes the less polluted our cities will be.

Why isn't business on board yet?

Altruism, is a hard concept to sell to big business. We have approached and worked with some of the world's largest producers of laundry products but even though the technology exists and could be relatively cheap to add to existing products, it's proved to be a tough sell. The fact that by catalysing your clothes the clean air you create will be breathed in by the person behind you is not seen as marketable.

A more serious issue is that photocatalysts can't tell the difference between a bad pollutant and a "good" one; for example, it treats perfume as just another volatile organic compound like pollution. This is an untenable threat to an entire industry and existing products owned by those best able to take CatClo to market.

We've recently travelled to China to see whether CatClo could work there. China is a place where perfume isn't culturally valued, but the common good is, so a country with one of the biggest pollution problems on the planet, and a government that isn't hidebound by business as usual, might be the best place to start.

What does the public think?

In the face of scepticism and inertia from the corporate world we started a global experiment to engage with audiences to ascertain human interest to prove that there is a market and a place for altruistic products.

Building on the power and impact of the Wonderland project, we created a prototype catalysed dress called Herself (funded by EPSRC's Solutions for a failing world) and toured the dress in cultural and science shows across the world. We created a film that reached more than 300 million people featuring supermodel Erin O'Connor and a soundtrack kindly provided by Radiohead. The message was spreading across the world and we were listening to feedback from people keen to know how this could become a reality.

During the research period, we realised that there were more jeans on the planet than people. Knowing this, we launched a pop-up exhibition, A Field of Jeans. The jeans we catalysed are all recycled and as it turns out, because of the special nature of cotton denim, are the most efficacious fabric of all to support the catalysts.

The public have been overwhelmingly supportive; once fears about the "chemicals", "nanotech" or becoming dirt magnets were dispelled, we captured people's imagination and proved that CatClo could eventually be as normal as fluoride in toothpaste with enormous potential to increase wellbeing and clean up our polluted cities.

Through our direct experience we know there is a role for every human in our collective advancement, from those working in the businesses best able to up-scale change that works, to each of us individually. The great leap forward we require, is simultaneously personal and global, and when science and culture work together both perspectives are involved in liveable solution-making.

Helen Storey MBE is a British artist and designer, professor of Fashion Science at London College of Fashion and co-director of The Helen Storey Foundation. Tony Ryan OBE is pro-vice chancellor of the Faculty of Science and professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Sheffiled.

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