Imagine having one shirt that you could wear in the winter to keep you warm and in the summer to keep you fresh. Well, imagine no more, as scientists from the University of Manchester have developed a new kind of smart fabric that could do just that. The textile achieves this because it contains graphene, which can be tuned to change the thermal radiation of the material. The team hopes that the technology could eventually be used in advanced displays and even adaptive spacesuits.
The same researchers previously used graphene to produce a thermal camouflage that hides a wearer’s heat so that infrared cameras can’t detect them. The material they used for the thermal camouflage involved a small electrical current that feeds onto layers of graphene embedded in the fabric. The system allows for altering the amount of infrared radiation emitted through the textile’s surface, which the team looked into for its tunable material.
Infrared radiation emits more when the body temperature is warmer. Some clothes are designed to lock this radiation in to keep the wearer warm, while others are designed to let it pass through freely to keep the body temperature low, the principle behind most cooling clothes sold today. The team has combined these two designs into one, with its smart fabric that can dynamically transition between both states via electrical tuning.
Professor Coskun Kocabas, who led the research, said, “Ability to control the thermal radiation is a key necessity for several critical applications such as temperature management of the body in excessive temperature climates. Thermal blankets are a common example used for this purpose. However, maintaining these functionalities as the surroundings heats up or cools down has been an outstanding challenge.”
The team made a prototype t-shirt to test out its dynamic thermal radiation control. The active device is featured as a patch on the left side of the chest that could be turned on and off as desired. The scientists believe this capability could serve all kinds of purposes, including communication, textile displays, fashion, or spacesuits.
Kocabas explained, “The next step for this area of research is to address the need for dynamic thermal management of Earth-orbiting satellites. Satellites in orbit experience excesses of temperature when they face the Sun, and they freeze in the Earth’s shadow. Our technology could enable dynamic thermal management of satellites by controlling the thermal radiation and regulate the satellite temperature on demand.”
On June 18th, the team published the research in the journal Nano Letters.
