Catalytic Clothing Seeks To Purify The Air We Breathe

On a breezy morning last week, Sketchbook went to the press release for a truly exciting and pioneering new project: Catalytic Clothing.  The brainchild of Professor Tony Ryan, a scientist from Sheffield University, and Professor Helen Storey, an artist and designer at London College of Fashion; Catalytic Clothing introduces clothes with a new purpose – to purify the air around us. Sketchbook went along thinking this sounded like a very interesting theory, but unsure how it would be implemented in reality.  We were extremely excited to learn that it really could happen, and potentially quite soon.

An introduction from Professor Frank Kelly, Chair in Environmental Health at King’s College London, explained why purifying the air we breath is imperative.  Every year there are 29,000 deaths in the UK due to poor air quality, of which the average loss of life is 11 years.  The invisible particles we breathe in every day are claiming far more lives than alcoholism or even road accidents.  Most of this toxic nitrogen oxide pollution comes from traffic.  Kelly monitors the air pollution levels and traffic flow across London: his graphic data showed us that levels were not improving, and clearly there have not yet been any successful technological solutions or governmental policies.

We were then shown a beautifully produced short film to introduce Catalytic Clothing, in the form of a flowing mottled blue dress with a distinctly maritime aesthetic that was apt for the natural purity it represents.  This was modeled by Erin O’Connor, who danced slowly and hypnotically to the Radiohead soundtrack, an equally apt reflection of the ethereal nature of the project.  The film gave a definition of a catalyst as “something that triggers a never-ending reaction”, the implication being that if we add this catalyst to our clothes we will start a reaction that constantly purifies air.

Then we got down to the nitty-gritty: the science part.  The trigger for the idea occurred during a brainstorming session that Tony Ryan held with a group of children.  The children wanted to know why we couldn’t use the ambient energy of walking people to help remove pollution.  This powerful suggestion got Ryan thinking: when people walk their clothing passes through the air around them.  Ryan calculated that the total surface area of the average person’s clothing collection would cover a tennis court, and anything with a large surface area like this is a catalyst support.

The second piece of inspiration came from the world of architecture.  Ryan knew of architectural coatings in which titanium particles are used to create “self-cleaning” windows – titanium particles react with the dirt and the combined product, water-soluble nitrate, washes off.  He saw no reason why this technology could not be used in a totally new application: on clothing. 

This is where Helen Storey comes in.  She wanted to use fashion to make this idea accessible and turn it into something people will connect with.  Storey aims to involve the public as much as possible in the early stages of the design; a step which she says science often overlooks.  It should be possible to buy clothes with the titanium particles already applied to the fabric, however this may not be the only answer.  What if we don’t want to buy these garments? What about the clothes we already own?  Well, this has been considered, and Ecover are now involved in the project to develop a washing powder containing the titanium particles, so we can simply wash our clothes as normal using this powder (which we are told will only be a matter of pence more expensive than the standard washing powder) to activate them.

As well as designing beautiful garments to embody the catalytic technology, Storey has been using social media to spread the word about this project, and has been recording the global response.  The good news is that web activity shows extremely high levels of interest across the globe, which suggests that this is something people may actually adopt into their lives.  Spread the word – let’s help make the air we breathe purer for everyone.

Words by: Imogen Webb