This garment made of polyethylene plastic comes with built-in air conditioning effect

Although summer has passed, the autumn tiger is fierce and the day is still scorching. Friends in the factory have to endure the dual torment of "machine grilling" and "fire grilling". If you come with a piece of clothing that can evaporate sweat and cool it down at this time, the work will be more exciting!

Material source

Simply put, this fabric is similar to the polyethylene plastic we use in our daily kitchen. This material allows infrared radiation to pass through, but it is impermeable and transparent, making it impossible to make clothes. However, Stanford University researchers have combined nanotechnology, photonics, and chemical techniques to compensate for the shortcomings of this polyethylene material.

Raw material transformation

They found a polyethylene material commonly used in battery manufacturing, which has a special nanostructure that is opaque under visible light but cannot block infrared radiation. Then, researchers used a harmless chemical to make it permeable, allowing water vapor molecules to pass through the nanopores of the material. In this way, the improved new material has three basic conditions as a clothing fabric: opaque under visible light, permeable and breathable, and allowing heat radiation to pass through.

In order to make this lightweight material more like clothing fabric, researchers designed a three-layer fabric structure with a certain strength and thickness: two layers of polyethylene, separated by a cotton mesh in the middle.

Heat dissipation mechanism

Researchers have pointed out that all objects, including the human body, dissipate heat in the form of infrared radiation, and clothing limits the body's heat emissions, making the skin feel warmer.

This new fabric utilizes different cooling mechanisms: it promotes body heat dissipation by reducing infrared radiation barriers, does not utilize external energy, but achieves the goal by changing the material's infrared radiation penetration.

Compared with cotton fabric of the same thickness, the new fabric has better heat dissipation performance: clothes made with the new fabric will have a body temperature two degrees lower than those made with cotton fabric.

Little knowledge

Polyethylene is odorless, non-toxic, and feels like wax to the touch. It has excellent low-temperature resistance (up to -100~-70 ° C at lower temperatures), good chemical stability, and can withstand most acids and alkalis (not resistant to acids with oxidizing properties). Insoluble in general solvents at room temperature, with low water absorption and excellent electrical insulation.

Researchers at Stanford University in the United States have developed a new type of fabric that has better heat dissipation than all current natural or synthetic fabrics. They wrote in the journal Science that wearing clothes made of this fabric in summer can still feel cool and comfortable even in environments without air conditioning.

Looking forward to next summer, we can wear air conditioning and endure the scorching sun.