《经济学人》双语：新发明纳米“黄金三明治”可以给冬天的玻璃除雾？

原文标题：
Smart coatings
A golden sandwich that demists your windscreen
It is a clever use of nanotechnology
智能涂层
一块能为你挡风玻璃除雾的“黄金三明治”
纳米技术的妙用
 
How to keep windows clear using gold and sunlight
如何用黄金和阳光来保持玻璃清晰

[1]
As the northern hemisphere’s winter arrives, the problem of fogged-up car windscreens becomes more pressing for drivers.
随着北半球冬季的来临，起雾的挡风玻璃对司机而言变得越发棘手。
 
When humid air hits a surface colder than it is the water vapour it carries condenses onto that surface as myriad tiny droplets. These scatter light at random.The result, if the surface is transparent, looks to a human eye like fog.
潮湿的空气遇到温度更低的表面时，其携带的水蒸气便会在该表面上凝结成大量的随意散光的小水珠，如果表面是透明的，那么人眼看去便是雾蒙蒙一片。
 
Depending on what is fogged, be it windows, spectacle lenses or windscreens, that can be a curiosity, a nuisance or a serious hazard.
取决于对象，要是窗户起雾那很有趣，要是眼镜起雾那就很讨厌，要是挡风玻璃起雾了那就很危险。
 

[2]
Antimisting sprays are one way to deal with such fogging. But they need frequent reapplication.
防雾喷剂是种解决方案，但需要反复使用。
 
Another approach is to embed within the thing to be demisted a set of electrically powered heating wires.
另一种方法是在除雾对象里嵌入电子加热导线。
 
That works for a car’s rear window but not (because of the visual distraction created) for its front windscreen. Nor does it suit the windows of buildings or the lenses of spectacles to be demisted in this way.
这可用在车的后玻璃上但不适用于前挡风玻璃、建筑物玻璃和眼镜片，以免造成视觉干扰。
 
[3]
Iwan Hächler and Dimos Poulikakos of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have, however, come up with another way of warming something up to stop condensation forming.
然而，苏黎世联邦理工学院的伊凡·海切勒和迪莫斯·坡里卡库斯提出另一种加热新材料的方法来阻止冷凝珠的形成。
 
Their new material, which they describe in Nature Nanotechnology, is a coating ten nanometres thick. It is flexible, easily made using existing processes, and can be applied as a coating to glass or plastic, or embedded inside such materials. Its demisting properties are powered by sunlight.
这种材料是他们在《自然·纳米技术》中提到的一种10纳米厚的涂料，由阳光驱动，具有灵活性和易操作性，能用作一种涂料用于玻璃、塑料上或内嵌入这类材料。
 
[4]
In effect, this material is a gold sandwich. The “bread” of this butty is a pair of layers, top and bottom, of titanium dioxide, each three nanometres thick. The filling is a four-nanometre deep golden filigree.
实际上，这种材料就像一个黄金三明治，面包就是上下两层二氧化钛涂料，各三纳米厚，填料是四纳米深的金线。
 
The whole kaboodle lets visible light pass untrammelled, while absorbing infrared and converting it into heat. And there is plenty to be absorbed.
整个结构使可见光不受阻地穿过，同时吸收大量的红外线并转化为热量。
 
Only about 40% of solar radiation is visible to the eye. More than 50% of it is infrared.
仅仅40%左右的太阳辐射肉眼可见，其余大于50%都是红外线。
 
[5]
It is the filling that warms the glass. When gold is deposited onto a surface at random, it first forms miniature islands.Since these are not connected to each other, the result is an insulator.
正是填料加热了玻璃。金线随机堆积在表面，先形成微型小岛，它们彼此分离，形成绝缘体。
 
Then, as more gold is added, bridges form between the islands. At a certain point these bridges transform the developing network from an insulator into a conductor, by letting electrons hop from island to island. That permits heat to spread.
随着金线增多，岛与岛之间形成桥梁，达到一定程度，这些桥梁在岛屿间传输电子，把发展中的网络从绝缘体转化为导体。
 
[6]
The network will now, like any other metal, absorb heat if left in the sunshine.
现在这个网络将像其他金属一样见光吸热。
 
It does so best, Mr Hächler and Dr Poulikakos say, when it reaches the so-called percolation limit—the moment at which it switches from an archipelago to an electrically interconnected sheet.
Hächler先生和Poulikakos博士称在最佳状态下会达到所谓的渗流极限，那刻它会从群岛变为电器互连板。
 
[7]
The titanium-dioxide layers boost that absorption. This substance has a high refractive index, meaning the speed of light passing through it is greatly reduced. That prolongs the time such light can interact with (and thus heat up) the gold.
二氧化钛层会增强吸收力，它具有高折射指数，能极大削弱穿过的光速，延长光与金线相互作用（进而加热）的时间。
 
The upper layer of titanium dioxide also protects the gold beneath it from damage.
上层的二氧化钛也能保护其下的金线免受伤害。
 
[8]
Glass coated with Mr Hächler’s and Dr Poulikakos’s invention is, they claim, four times more effective at preventing fog than an uncoated surface.
海切勒先生和坡里卡库斯博士称称，涂有他们发明的玻璃防雾性能比普通玻璃强四倍。
 
It absorbs around 30% of solar radiation incident upon it—which, on a sunny day, increases the temperature of what it is applied to by around 8°C. On a cloudy day, that temperature rise is closer to 3-4°C.
它能吸收玻璃上的30%的太阳辐射--在晴天可以升温约8摄氏度，阴天则3~4摄氏度。
 
But in either case the enhancement is sufficient both to remove any fog that has condensed and to prevent new fog forming.
但两种情况下温度均足以清除凝结的雾气并防止雾气形成。
 
The main problem is that it does not work at night.
主要问题是此法不适用于夜间。
 
[9]
The next step, Mr Hächler says, is to find the product’s best market.
海切勒先生说下一步计划寻找产品的最佳市场。
 
Dr Poulikakos reckons spectacles are a good starting point. (This is not an entirely disinterested suggestion, for he wears them himself.)
坡里卡库斯博士称认为可以从眼镜片着手（这个提议并非完全不涉己利，他自己也戴眼镜）。
 
Spectacle lenses already have many layers of coatings applied to them. The cost of adding this extra one is low. Even though gold is used, so little is required that the materials themselves are worth only 20 cents or so.
眼镜片本身就有很多涂层，附加的这一层价格也便宜，即便使用了金线，但用量极少，花费不过约20美分。
 
For the two inventors, though, the idea might prove a gold mine.然而对这两位发明者而言，这个想法可能被证明是一座金矿。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量657左右）
原文出自：2022年12月24日《The Economist》Science&technology版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Guo Zhenyan本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
瑞士苏黎世联邦理工学院（ETH Zurich）的研究人员们开发出一种新型透明材料涂层，它可以大大地减少这种起雾的现象。这种耐用涂层的厚度仅为几纳米，由嵌入到非导电的氧化钛中的金纳米颗粒组成。ETH 教授 Dimos Poulikakos 课题组的博士生、这项研究的领导作者 Christopher Walker 表示：“我们的涂层吸收太阳光的红外部分，以及一小部分的可见光，并将光线转化为热量。”这样可以加热表面3到4摄氏度，这样的温度差异可以防止起雾。测试表明，当暴露于太阳光中时，涂有金纳米颗粒和氧化钛的起雾表面比具有普通防雾剂的表面，变清晰的速度要快四倍。涂层具有巨大的应用潜力，包括汽车挡风玻璃、后视镜、滑雪眼镜和潜水镜。
 
纳米技术(Nanotechnology)是指当令世界人力能控制的最小单位，纳米技术其实就是一种用单个原子或分子制造物质的技术。
 
苏黎世联邦理工学院（英语: ETH 或ETH Zurich），由瑞士联邦政府创建于1854年，爱因斯坦母校，与姊妹校洛桑联邦理工学院一起组成瑞士联邦理工学院，是瑞士联邦经济事务、教育与研究部的一部分，坐落于瑞士苏黎世。 截至2022年8月，ETH走出了32位诺贝尔奖得主。
 
【重点句子】（3 个）
Depending on what is fogged, be it windows, spectacle lenses or windscreens, that can be a curiosity, a nuisance or a serious hazard.
取决于对象，要是窗户起雾那很有趣，要是眼镜起雾那就很讨厌，要是挡风玻璃起雾了那就很危险。
 
In effect, this material is a gold sandwich. The “bread” of this butty is a pair of layers, top and bottom, of titanium dioxide, each three nanometres thick. The filling is a four-nanometre deep golden filigree.
实际上，这种材料就像一个黄金三明治，面包就是上下两层二氧化钛涂料，各三纳米厚，填料是四纳米深的金线。
 
For the two inventors, though, the idea might prove a gold mine.
然而对这两位发明者而言，这个想法可能被证明是一座金矿。