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New Material: Clothing Material PTM Which Can Cool Human Body

2021/7/14 9:24:00 0

The surface temperature of death valley in the United States has just exceeded 80 ℃, while the temperature in many places in China is above 33 ℃. Living in high temperature environment has become a challenge for human beings. It is expected that more and more fatal heat waves will occur in the future, even making some areas uninhabitable.

Chinese scientists have developed a new fabric material to keep the body cool. A fabric that reflects light and heat to a great extent.

This emerging technology area is known as personal thermal management (PTM), and in a new study, researchers say their "super fabric me" Tafabric "could one day help the wearer adapt to hot weather.

Shao, the first author of Huazhong University of science and technology The team led by Ning Zeng explained in the paper, "me Tafabric shows efficient radiation cooling performance and provides necessary air permeability and comfort for PTM.

me Tafabric uses titanium oxide polylactic acid (PLA) composite nanoparticles to adhere to the thin layer of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to strongly reflect light, including visible light (VIS), mid infrared (MIR) and ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

In theory, reflecting most of the electromagnetic wave can reduce the heat absorbed by itself.

"Such a wide distribution of nanoparticles, when combined with PTFE nanobeads, provides broad-spectrum scattering and reflectance across the UV-vis-NIR band," the researchers wrote

The researchers tested the potential of the material under clear sky conditions in Guangzhou“ Under the peak solar radiation between 11:00 and 15:00, me The temperature of tafabric is about 5.0 ° C, 6.8 ° C, 7.0 ° C, 5.8 ° C and 10.2 ° C lower than those of cotton, spandex, chiffon, flax and bare skin simulators, respectively“

In another test that was closer to real-world conditions, a volunteer lay in direct sunlight for an hour - wearing a special vest, half covered by me Tafabric, commercial cotton on the other side.

The temperature difference between the two sides of the vest measured by the external thermal imager is 3.4 ° C, but the thermal sensor under the fabric shows that the difference between the inside of the vest is more obvious - me Half of tafabric is about 4.8 ° C lower than the side covered with cotton.

In another experiment, the me Tafabric covers a car, and the internal temperature of the car is about 30 ℃ lower than that of the vehicle without covering, and about 27 ℃ lower than that of the vehicle with commercial vehicle cover.

Although me Tafabric shows a definite effect, but the effect on moving individuals remains to be observed because the current experiments only involve stationary objects and objects.

It is not clear how to bleach and dye the fabric because it may affect its reflective ability, but future research and experiments are expected to answer these unknown questions.

On the plus side, the researchers say the material is compatible with commercial sewing technology and exhibits mechanical properties comparable to commercial fabrics, including durability and water resistance.

The researchers told science news that they estimated me Tafabric is cheap to produce, perhaps only about 10% higher than a typical garment.

If you have a business partner, the researchers want to use this me Tafabric's products could be available as soon as a year later.

"These results show great potential for commercial applications in a variety of complex situations, such as smart textiles, shading products, logistics and transportation. Through embroidery, cutting and sewing, me Tafabric can be integrated into a variety of products in different scenes, such as clothing, tents, car covers, curtains and awnings.