According to Nature, “a quarter of all toilet bowls coming on to the market in Taiwan now come with self-cleaning nano-coatings.”
We were a little puzzled by this statement, coming as it does in the middle of an article about the photocatalytic properties of TiO2, an effect that is being applied to many materials, from car windscreens to antibacterial masks, as well as in the textile industry. While the effect is well known, it works best when the coatings are exposed to sunlight, or more accurately to UV light, something that may be in short supply in the smallest rooms of many houses.