Shirts made of nanofibres to replace air conditioning

7.9.2016

Do you think you won't survive the summer at work without air conditioning or at least a fan? Soon you may be able to buy clothes that will cool your body while not revealing more than you would wish.

The fundamental problem of all materials which are sufficiently porous to release thermal energy generated by the human body is that they are transparent. Application in the clothing industry is, therefore, problematic. Scientists, however, have just created a fibre capable of keeping human skin up to three degrees cooler than cotton or synthetic materials.

Cooler bodies and buildings

Researchers at Stanford University have managed to create a fibre out of a material that can cool itself while remaining opaque to the human eye. It is nanoporous polyethylene (nanoPE), which has already been widely used, for example, in lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries as a separator of electrodes. The miniature pores help release both heat and moisture from the body.

The research will continue and mainly focus on how to streamline and reduce the cost of nanoPE production. It should be finished within a few years. The new fibre may help not only people but also buildings to stay cooler. It will not replace air conditioning completely but it can contribute to significant energy savings.

The existing research was published in Science magazine in an article entitled Radiative human body cooling by nanoporous polyethylene textile. You can also watch a short video.

-kk-