{"id":697785,"date":"2025-11-01T18:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T15:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/self-cleaning-and-sustainable-design-adjustments-could-them-easier-to-use\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T18:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T15:55:11","slug":"self-cleaning-and-sustainable-design-adjustments-could-them-easier-to-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/self-cleaning-and-sustainable-design-adjustments-could-them-easier-to-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-cleaning and sustainable design adjustments could them easier to use"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n A silicone oil coating and absorbent fibers could complement an existing menstrual cup, making it easier to use. Credit: ACS App<\/a>lied Materials & Interfaces<\/i> (2025). DOI: 10.1021\/acsami.5c16140
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Reusable menstrual cups reduce waste and are more cost-effective than single-use pads and tampons. But some people avoid the cups because they require thorough cleaning and are sometimes messy to empty. To solve these problems, researchers coated a commercially available silicone cup in silicone oil and created a plant-based, absorbent tablet. These design adjustments could make menstrual cups safer and easier to use, according to a study published<\/a> in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces<\/i>.<\/p>\n

“This research bridges advanced engineering and women’s health, creating a menstrual product that is not only self-cleaning and sustainable, but also opens doors for future health monitoring,” says Tohid Didar, one of the senior researchers of this study from McMaster University.<\/p>\n

Nearly 2 billion people menstruate, and their desire for sustainable, reusable options\u2014menstrual cups, disks and period underwear\u2014is rising. Menstrual cups are designed to hold more fluid than tampons, allowing longer wear than the disposable option, and they can be cleaned and reused for years.<\/p>\n

But users complain about unexpected spills during removal and the time-consuming process to sterilize the cups in boiling water or other sanitizing solutions\u2014issues that can deter wider adoption of the products. So, Zeinab Hosseinidoust, Didar and colleagues found a cup coating to reduce cleaning time and developed a tablet to absorb liquid inside the device.<\/p>\n

The researchers tested bacterial growth on three commercially available menstrual cups made from medical-grade silicone, finding that the cup infused with silicone oil repelled E. coli significantly better than the two other cups. And coating the outside of the infused cup with silicone oil helped keep blood from sticking, too. This result suggests that people only need to wash the coated cup with soap and water; no boiling is required, says Didar.<\/p>\n

Then, to create the absorbent tablet, they spun alginate (a polymer from brown algae) into fibers and linked them together with calcium chloride. The white, fluffy fibers clotted human plasma onto them within 16 minutes and neither inhibited nor promoted bacterial growth compared to a control (an empty petri dish without the plant-based fibers). The researchers say that this supports the fibers’ potentially safe usage in consumer products.<\/p>\n

In experiments, they formed the fibers into 1-gram tablets, and each tablet:<\/p>\n