Scientists at Stanford University in the United States recently developed a low-cost plastic material that can be used in clothing to make the wearer feel cooler, thereby reducing people’s dependence on air conditioning in hot weather and reducing energy waste.
This material helps the wearer’s body release heat in two ways, with a temperature difference of up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
The research, conducted with the help of the Comet supercomputer in San Diego, California, has been published in the journal Science.
Traditional fabrics achieve cooling by evaporating sweat, while the cooling mechanism of this new material is to dissipate body heat through plastic materials in the form of infrared radiation.
All objects, including the human body, emit heat in the form of infrared radiation, which is an invisible, benign light wave. Blankets keep us warm by capturing the heat emitted by infrared radiation close to the body. Scientists say this thermal radiation emanating from the body can be observed through night vision goggles in the dark.
Yi Cui (transliteration), associate professor of materials physics and engineering at Stanford University, is the main person in charge of this project. He said that if the human body can directly feel cool in summer instead of the cool environment, it will save a lot of energy in air conditioning.
Shanhui Fan, a co-researcher on this project and an electrical engineering expert who focuses on optoelectronics, visible and invisible light research, said: “When we sit in the office, 40% to 60% of the body’s heat is emitted in the form of infrared radiation. But So far, there have been very few designs and studies on the thermal radiation properties of textiles. By adjusting various parameters, we can determine the suitable pore size range for a nanopore that appears opaque on the surface but radiates heat. The wavelength range is highly transparent.”
Team member Po-Chun Hsu said that using computer models as a guide, the researchers discovered that a variant of polyethylene commonly used in battery manufacturing has a specific nanostructure that is opaque to visible light but transparent to infrared radiation, allowing it to dissipate heat from the body. They modified this industrial polyethylene so that water vapor molecules can also evaporate through nanopores in the plastic.
Currently, the researchers are continuing to work on several other aspects, including adding more colors and textures to their materials to make them look more like cloth.
Source: Textile Technology Magazine
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