A team of researchers from China made a fabric able to cool down the body by 5 degrees C and may be of aid with the rising temperatures we’re faced with.
This “metafabric” is the brainchild of scientists from different parts of China. It looks like a usual T-shirt material, but this one uses tech which provokes mid-infrared radiation that decreases the wearer’s temperature.
The paper is published in the Science journal.
A T-shirt that Keeps You Cool on Scorching Summer Days
Although it’s easy to make clothing that can keep us warm, it’s much harder to design outfits that will cool us down in summer. But, researchers are heading there.
Thanks to their everyday-like fabric, they claim clothes can now cool down the body by almost 5 degrees C. The team notes that if it’s mass-produced, it could be of major aid for people worldwide to keep them safe from rising temperatures which are a result of climate change.
In order to make clothes that beat back the sunrays, fashion designers usually use a light-color fabric that reflects the light.
But, another method reflects the electromagnetic radiation by the sun, including UV and NIR. NIR warms objects that absorb it and then gradually cools them as they release it.
However, this cooling process is prevented by our atmosphere. Namely, after being emitted from an object, NIR gets absorbed by the surrounding water molecules and heats up the surrounding air.
How Did the Researchers Speed Up the Cooling Process?
To fasten up the cooling process, the researchers turned to MIR, an IR with longer wavelengths. Rather than being absorbed by the molecules in the surrounding air, MIR goes right into space and cools down the objects and the surroundings.
This activity is known as radiative cooling and engineers have used it in the last ten years to make roofs, wood, plastic films, and ultra-white paint.
Our skin, unlike the clothes we wear, emits MIR naturally. In 2017, Stanford researchers made a fabric that lets MIR from the body pass through it, which cools the wearer by 3 degrees C.
However, to do this, the fabric had to be very thin, only 45 micrometers or 1/3 of the thickness of a lightweight linen dress shirt. This made some researchers question its durability.
In order to create a thicker fabric, engineers from Huazhong University of Science and Tech and the University of Zhejiang took a different approach.
They made a textile that uses chemical bonds for absorption of body heat and its reemitting into space as MIR.
The fabric, 550 micrometers thick and made of polylactic and synthetic fiber blend with nanoparticles of titanium dioxide also reflects UV and NIR light and additionally cools you down.
According to the researchers, it may look like a regular shirt, but it’s a mirror.
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