Researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, have created a super-slippery toilet bowl to which almost nothing can stick.

The new toilet, dubbed the Abrasion-Resistant Super-Slippery Flush Toilet (ARSSFT), was developed via a 3D printing process wherein plastic and hydrophobic sand grains were combined and then injected with a silicon-based oil.

Source: Advanced Engineering Materials (2023). DOI: 10.1002/adem.202300703

The researchers explained that the end result of this was a slippery toilet bowl that would flush away virtually everything — for instance synthetic feces, honey, muddy water, rice porridge, milk and starch-filled gel. Despite sandpapering and eventually scraping the surface of the toilet bowl with a Stanley knife and file, the researchers found that nothing stuck to the bowl.

Enabling the toilet to outperform other treatments such as nonstick sprays that eventually wear off, the ARSSFT toilet bowl — which is one-tenth the size of a regular toilet — continues to be resistant thanks to the silicon oil that penetrates the bowl's surface. The researchers explain that oil is simultaneously close enough to the bowl’s surface to demonstrate its non-stick properties but can also penetrate the bowl deep enough so as not to not leach out.

The article detailing the ARSSFT, Abrasion‐Resistant and Enhanced Super‐Slippery Flush Toilets Fabricated by a Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printing Technology, appears in the journal Advanced Engineering Materials.

For more information on the ARSSFT, watch the accompanying video that appears courtesy of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China.