Masks fogging up eyeglasses? An SC professor could have a solution

If you’ve ever felt annoyed by fogged-up glasses — especially during this time of pandemic mask wearing — or couldn’t see yourself in the bathroom mirror after a shower, Xin Zhao may have a product for you.

It might take five more years, but his research at Clemson University is showing great promise in developing fogless and water- and dirt-repellent glass. Think no cleaning house windows or buying windshield wipers.

Zhao, a 36-year-old associate professor of mechanical engineering, recently earned a $606,000 grant from the National Science Foundation through its Faculty Early Career Development Program, also known as CAREER, which will augment his research.

Zhao said the hypothesis that glass can be made to repel water and dirt has been around since the 1960s. It is based on the phenomena of butterfly wings and lotus leaves, which repel water naturally.

“We don’t formally understand it, but I have clues and need to verify these theories,” Zhao said.

It involves a laser, ensuring the glass is not completely flat and adding color. But a problem creeps in when this is done: The glass becomes less transparent. Therein lies the puzzle that Zhao is trying to solve.

Zhao has been at Clemson since 2015. He is originally from Shandong Province, an affluent coastal region of China. Zhao’s father was a banker, and his mother worked at the Chinese equivalent of the Internal Revenue Service.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tsinghua University in Beijing, then came to the United States for his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Purdue University in Indiana.

There, he worked with metals and semiconductors.

He turned to glass research for a simple reason: Glass is used everywhere. Plus, his own glasses fog up, he said.

The idea of improving the experience of glass has wide application, he said.

Representatives of cellphone companies have talked to him about how the glass on screens can be made to mimic writing on paper rather than the odd scrawls made now. Or the glass could be made to change colors.

He’s already used a computer to guide a laser to make micro- and nano-scale surface structures on glass. In one demonstration, he etched a Clemson Tiger paw in a piece of glass. It can be seen but not easily felt.

If this theory about no-fog glass proves true, glass could be manufactured to ensure a vehicle would not ice up, water would not stick to windshields and snow on cars would be easily swept away.

Also, if glasses repel moisture, they offer more protection against viruses such as COVID-19, he said.

Zhao acknowledged the product could be quite a money-maker.

Zhao has a PhD student and six undergraduates working in the lab with him and expects to bring on two more.

If it doesn’t work, he said, “I have some backup plans.”

The CAREER awards, like the one funding Zhao’s glass research, are given to professors in the early years of their careers who show promise not only in research but also in academia and mentoring students.

In Clemson’s College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, 22 professors have won CAREER awards between 2015 and 2021 amounting to nearly $10 million.

Daniel L. Noneaker, associate dean of research in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences, said, “The awards are important to recipients because they provide a financial springboard as they launch the next phase of their careers in academia.”

Noneaker said such awards are crucial in the university’s ability to fund laboratories and pay students and postdoctoral fellows for their research work.

The college also receives grants from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, individuals and private businesses, he said.

This story was originally published February 17, 2021 at 12:45 PM.