"Yes that's right, self-cleaning dinner plates may spell the end of washing-up forever" writes Renee Watson

Whether it is the toilet, the washing machine or just a puddle, many of us have fallen foul of the wet mobile phone. I watched a long thread unfold on Facebook just this week with tips on how to salvage a kid-dropped-it-in-the-loo job. From pulling it apart and hair-drying it to sitting it in a bowl of rice for 48 hours. Whether these tricks buy your phone a bit more life or not, one thing is sure; that water has gotten into the delicate circuits of the phone and is causing metal to bleed… slowly… to death.

But fear not! This story of death and destruction will soon be a thing of the past all thanks to a bright spark who has brought a seriously cool invention to Oxfordshire.

P2i is based down at Milton Park and they have developed a material so fine it is a “nano” material. You can’t even see it because it is so thin. It is hydrophobic – water hates this stuff, it beads off just like water off a ducks back. But the coolest thing is that P2i has developed a method for making the nanomaterial into a mist so that it can be sprayed over pretty much anything.

This means that you can completely waterproof your phone, inside and out, on every surface because the mist is so fine that it gets in and around even the tiniest nook and cranny. P2i call it their Dunkable technology! I watched as my host at P2i dropped his freshly Dunkabled phone into a deep bowl of water without the slightest hesitation. Two hours later the phone was carrying on as usual in its watery bed. Not a single sign of anything going wrong.

The great news about this technology is that the limit is your imagination. Not only is it resistant to water but also oils and sweat so you can, in theory, spray the protective mist over things like hearing aids, shoes (waterproofing my favourite blue suede heels would be pretty handy right now!) and even dinner plates. Yes that’s right! Self-cleaning dinner plates may spell the end of washing-up forever.

I am a firm believer in the old saying good things come in small packages (nothing to do with my size… not at all) and nanomaterials are no exception. For something so tiny they are making a big impact on our future.

The idea is that our future homes (say five years from now) will have another box alongside our microwave and washing machine that you can pop your new boots, ipad or glasses in and within minutes they are completely waterproof. So when you are ready for your next upgrade ask if the phone is Dunkable. If it is, you can put your rice back in the cupboard and your hairdryer in the drawer. You can even drop your phone in the loo on purpose if that is what you are in to.

Because your days of the soggy phone are over forever!