Stanford University experts have created a new fabric that actively draws heat from the body.
In the hope that its cooling impact will help to reduce the dependence on tools such as air-conditioning, Stanford University experts have created a new fabric that actively draws heat from the body.
Staying warm in winter is a reasonably straightforward matter: as the temperatures drop, more clothes are used to maintain a comfortable temperature. But what is the solution when we encounter those summer days along with the sun that beats down and the humidity that increases, and we find ourselves hopeless in search of a cooler place? Undressing can only accomplish so much before modesty starts to kick in. So, we begin readjusting our conditions and pumping up the air-conditioning.
Researchers mentioned that the high-tech material could distribute body heat better than other conventional fabrics and obstruct the sun’s rays. When the material was wrapped on a mannequin that mimicked the answer of human skin through remarkably warm temperatures, the synthetic skin’s temperature increased by only 0.8 degrees Celsius.
It was much less than in the case of cotton when a 3.5 degree Celsius rise occurred. In the event of polyethylene, also known as the fabric sportswear is made of, there was an increase of 2.9 degrees Celsius.
Blending photonics, nanotechnology, and chemistry to enable the body to release heat more quickly than conventional textiles, the new fabric would cause the wearer to be about 4 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. It is known to do so by enabling not just the evaporation of sweat but also by letting the bodies’ infrared radiation move through.
A Stanford professor and co-author of the research, Shanhui Fan, mentioned that forty to sixty percent of our body heat is dispersed as infrared radiation when we are resting in an office. Nonetheless, until now, there has been no examination on creating the thermal radiation properties of textiles.
The polyethylene which is usually used in the kitchen as the transparent plastic food wrapping already enables infrared radiation to cross through. Nevertheless, being see-through, scientists believed that it is not the most functional fabric for clothing. They discovered a similar alternative of polyethylene, which still lets infrared radiation move through, but this time is opaque.
Image source: Pixabay
