UC Berkeley team designs a coating that keeps glasses, car windows and cameras clear in heavy fog
The see-through gel wicks water into a thin film instead of letting it bead up. It kept a pot lid clear while boiling vegetables, researchers report.
Engineers have made a clear coating that keeps surfaces from fogging up even in heavy steam, where today’s anti-fog sprays and treatments give out, according to a study in the journal Nature Communications and UC Berkeley. The team says it could help eyeglasses, goggles, car and bathroom windows, camera and sensor lenses, and even the glass doors on supermarket freezers.
Fog forms when tiny water droplets condense on a surface and scatter light, making it look hazy. The droplets act like countless little lenses. Most anti-fog fixes either attract water so it spreads into a film, or repel it so it beads and rolls off — but both fail under heavy condensation.
How it works
The coating is a hydrogel, the same soft, water-loving material used in contact lenses. The researchers textured its surface with microscopic pillars, far too small to see, that “wick” water sideways — pulling it into a thin, continuous, see-through film instead of letting droplets pile up. In the lab it stayed clearer than both water-attracting and water-repelling coatings, and when placed under a glass pot lid over boiling zucchini and carrots, it went from misty to fully transparent in about 30 seconds.
Where it stands
This is a published laboratory result, not yet a product on store shelves. The work was led by UC Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Thomas Schutzius with colleagues at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, and a patent application has been filed. The team says the coating holds up well and sticks firmly, but turning a lab demonstration into cheap, mass-produced lenses and windows is a further step.
Source: Park, Lam et al., “Rationally micropatterned antifogging hydrogels counteracting extreme condensation,” Nature Communications; UC Berkeley Engineering, Nov. 2026.