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Spinoff story
Light-Induced Oxidation Cleans Air, Surfaces, Clothes
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Under a Marshall Space Flight Center research partnership in the 1990s, scientists at the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics discovered photocatalytic oxidation, a process that creates charged hydroxyl radicals that oxidize airborne organic contaminants, turning them into carbon dioxide and water. Dallas-based Aerus Holdings acquired and improved an active form of the technology that emits hydroxyls to purify air and surfaces and has incorporated it into several product lines, even including detergent-free clothes washing.