Some clothing manufacturers are equipping their jackets with health monitoring sensors and other electronics. Such functions are certainly interesting, but most consumers expect a very commonplace thing from clothes - it is important for them that it warms in the cold and refreshes in the heat. Fortunately, some research teams are well aware of this - for example, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have developed a temperature-adaptive material that can be used to make excellent sports shirts.
The researchers were inspired to create tissue by an important property of the human body - it exchanges heat with the environment using thermal radiation. Manufacturers of sportswear already use materials that increase the carrying capacity, but their properties are active all the time, not just when needed.
To make the fabric react to changes in body temperature during physical activity, the researchers created it from a thread consisting of two fibers that absorb and repel moisture. Due to the different reaction to moisture, when the body sweats, the fibers are pressed against each other - the threads become thinner and pores form on the fabric. Also, the fabric has carbon nanotubes that increase its emissivity.
If you look at the picture as a whole, it turns out that when playing sports, the human body is cooled in two ways at once. First, it is ventilated through the pores in the shirt. Secondly, nanotubes help the body remove more heat. When a person is calm and does not sweat, the material maintains an optimal temperature and the person does not feel excessive cold.
To test the effectiveness of the fabric, the researchers placed it in a humidity-controlled container. By measuring its transmittance, the researchers found that when the humidity rises by more than 90%, the transmittance accordingly increases to 35.4%.
Many research groups and companies are involved in the creation of materials for the "clothes of the future". Sometimes they don't need to be created at all - at the end of 2018, Fast Company released a jacket made of graphene, which also perfectly removes and retains heat, depending on the surrounding conditions.
Promotional video:
Ramis Ganiev