this past fall, engineers at stanford university revealed that they had developed a low-cost, plastic-based textile that would dissipate body heat more efficiently than common natural or synthetics fabrics used by the clothing industry, according to a report from the school website.

stanford researchers are using a new plastic material for clothing to keep people cool. (youtube)

the researchers hope that this new material can be used to keep people cool in hot climates without the need for air conditioning. focusing on the garments that people are wearing rather than cooling the buildings will save money and resources, according to the engineers who worked on the project.

engineers worked with a variant of polyethylene that is commonly used in batteries and has a specific nanostructure making it opaque to visible light but transparent to infrared radiation. the report noted, “this provided a base material that was opaque to visible light for the sake of modesty but thermally transparent for purposes of energy efficiency.”

the researchers modified the polyethylene with chemicals to allow water vapor to evaporate through nano-scale pores within the plastic. they took two sheets of the polyethylene and separated them with a cotton mesh to add stability and thickness to the fabric.

the result was material that made the wearer feel 4°f cooler than if he or she was wearing cotton by allowing body heat to escape as thermal radiation emissions as well as allowing perspiration to evaporate through the material.

in order for the material to be mass-produced for public consumption, the researchers are working on adding colors, textures, and “cloth-like characteristics” to the plastic-based textile.

the research was published in science in september. the abstract stated:

“thermal management through personal heating and cooling is a strategy by which to expand indoor temperature setpoint range for large energy saving. we show that nanoporous polyethylene (nanope) is transparent to mid-infrared human body radiation but opaque to visible light because of the pore size distribution (50 to 1000 nanometers).

“we processed the material to develop a textile that promotes effective radiative cooling while still having sufficient air permeability, water-wicking rate, and mechanical strength for wearability.

“we developed a device to simulate skin temperature that shows temperatures 2.7° and 2.0°c lower when covered with nanope cloth and with processed nanope cloth, respectively, than when covered with cotton. our processed nanope is an effective and scalable textile for personal thermal management.”

to learn more about the new material, watch the video below: