May 02, 2020 15:00:00

'Phase-changing fabric' is here, a dream new material that becomes warm when it's cold and cool when it's hot

When it comes to clothes that can heat themselves and regulate their temperature, UNIQLO's

Heattech, which uses moisture-absorbing and heat-generating fibers , is famous. However, a new fiber material has been developed that uses a completely different material and mechanism from the moisture-absorbing and heat-generating fibers that have been released so far, making it warm when it's cold and cool when it's hot.

Flexible and Robust Biomaterial Microstructured Colored Textiles for Personal Thermoregulation | ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.0c02300

New textile could keep you cool in the heat, warm in the cold -- ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200415133440.htm

Fabrics using fibers that become warm when it's cold or cool when it's hot have been available before, but no fabrics that can do both have drawbacks. In addition, such fabrics have drawbacks such as being heavy, bulky, easily damaged, expensive, and requiring an external energy source.

So a research team led by Guangming Tao, head of the High Performance Fibers Laboratory at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, developed a porous fiber with a very fine structure from chitosan and silk obtained from the exoskeletons of crustaceans such as crabs and shrimp.

Furthermore,

polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is known to be able to absorb and release thermal energy through the principle of phase transition , was injected into the tiny holes in the fibers, and then the fibers were coated with dimethylpolysiloxane, a type of silicone, to prevent the PEG from leaking out.

When the research team tested the fabric they had made, they found that it was not only highly flexible and strong, but also had excellent insulating properties and water-repellent properties.

In addition, the research team created gloves using this fabric and placed their hands in a box heated to 50 degrees Celsius. The PEG melted and absorbed heat, cooling the hands. Similarly, when the gloves were placed in a 10-degree environment, the PEG solidified and released heat, warming the hands.

'This material can be produced using existing textile industry facilities, making it feasible for mass production,' the team wrote in their paper.