Sto Lotusan — Biomimicry Paint

Recently we were talking about minimal maintenance Keim paints for mineral based surfaces. And last year we were prattling on about clothes that could clean themselves. Well, those two stories now merge into one. Sto are selling a paint for mineral, cement and concrete surfaces that is self cleaning. Using technology developed by German scientist Dr Wilhelm Barthlott, who has dubbed it Lotus-Effect, after studying the phenomenon of water beading on lotus leaf. The resulting paint induces biomimicry by causing rain to ‘pearl off’ sliding down the wall. This is said to reduce the “build-up of micro-organisms (algae, bacteria, fungus) which flourish in damp and dirty conditions.” Thus keeping the facade clean and maintenance free. [see before and after pics in extended post].

Left no Lotusan. Right same building with Lotusan paint
(assuming it's a real photo, not touched up in Photoshop!)

The team at Lotus-Effect are working on a bunch of other projects to commercialise their discoveries. A spray-on for textiles seems on the cards and now they talking about a special plastic sheeting. Always thought plastic was pretty water repellent meself, but ya never know. If only my German was up to it, I might be able to investigate further. Multilingual readers out there can read here. For more on the Lotusan paints visit ::Sto UK (PDF here) and ::Sto Germany