Imagine a single garment that could adapt to changing weather conditions, keeping its wearer cool in the heat of midday but warm when an evening storm blows in.
Imagine a single garment that could adapt to changing weather conditions, keeping its wearer cool in the heat of midday but warm when an evening storm blows in. In addition to wearing it outdoors, such clothing could also be worn indoors, drastically reducing the need for air conditioning or heat. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have made a strong, comfortable fabric that heats and cools skin, with no energy input.
“Smart textiles” that can warm or cool the wearer are nothing new, but typically, the same fabric cannot perform both functions. These textiles have other drawbacks, as well — they can be bulky, heavy, fragile and expensive. Many need an external power source. Guangming Tao and colleagues wanted to develop a more practical textile for personal thermal management that could overcome all of these limitations.
Read more at American Chemical Society
Image: A microstructured fiber (left) contains pores (right) that can be filled with a phase-changing material that absorbs and releases thermal energy. (Credit: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c02300)
