Keeping a Car Clean Is Mission Impossible With So Many Screens, So GM Invented One That Cleans Itself
Published by The team in News the 22/02/2023 at 16:16
New vehicle touchscreens , which, with few exceptions , are getting bigger and bigger, present an annoying problem: either they're constantly being cleaned or they'll always have smudged fingers and dust.
General Motors wants to put an end to this problem and has just filed a patent that could do just that . This is a relatively easy technology to implement: a photocatalytic system activated by ultraviolet LEDs integrated into the RGB matrix of the screen itself.
We review what this particularity consists of, which is actually much simpler than it seems.
The key is purple in color
Typically, current LED screens are based on an "RGB" color scheme that mixes red, green and blue diodes set to different intensities from which a full palette of shades is created.
GM's new patent proposes to embed a fourth color in the matrix that would produce violet light and be specifically tuned to the ultraviolet wavelength invisible to the human eye. The choice of this fourth LED is not random and is closely related to a process called photocatalysis .
As the GM patent suggests, on the surface of the display there will be a completely transparent layer or coating which will have an embedded photocatalyst based on metal oxides such as titanium dioxide (already used in self-cleaning solar panels and other applications) .
The configuration proposed by the North American manufacturer would not make the GM screens different from the rest aesthetically, since the change would be negligible.
Its particularity lies in the fact that the photocatalyst integrated into the coating of the screen is a material whose main function is to absorb certain wavelengths of light in order to subsequently produce a chemical reaction.
In this case, when exposed to ultraviolet light, it attracts moisture from the air . This creates a thin layer of water on the surface, which begins to "oxidize" to electrochemically generate free radical molecules that attack bacteria, fungi and other organisms.
This would slowly clean and sterilize the screen , and when the UV light is removed, the surface becomes impermeable again, allowing moisture to build up and slide off the surface.
To make it work safely, GM's idea is to design a fully programmable UV proximity light directly into the display's color matrix, so the display can begin the self-cleaning process at any time. time (preferably when the driver is not in use, as it can also work at night ).
General Motors claims that this technology "may have different approaches" and although a priori it may seem more practical, for example, in computers, mobile devices, televisions or even in ATMs and/or appliances than in cars, the truth is that this innovative idea, which is still at a very early stage to determine its viability or price, seems to us most interesting.
