Researchers at University of Maryland have invented a smart material capable of warming up a person when they're cold and cooling them down when they're hot.
The textile is made of regular polymer fibres that have been coated with carbon nanotubes, making them responsive to changes in body heat.
In warm and humid conditions, when the body is sweating on a hot day, the yarn contracts, allowing more infrared radiation coming off the body to pass through. When it's cool and dry, the yarn expands, trapping that same heat.
The temperature regulating fabric is responsive to changes in body heat
The effect would be almost instantaneous, with the fabric activating well before a person noticed any physical discomfort.
The University of Maryland (UMD) scientists discussed the research in the journal Science this month, in a paper titled Dynamic gating of infrared radiation in a textile. "The human body is a perfect radiator. It gives off heat quickly," said researcher Min Ouyang, a UMD physics professor and co-author on the paper. "For all of history, the only way to regulate the radiator has been to take clothes off or put clothes on. But this fabric is a true bidirectional regulator."
The researchers anticipate the material first being used in sportswear
The most obvious application for the material would be sportswear, but the researchers see a wider scope for its use in clothing and bed linen.
"I think it's very exciting to be able to apply this gating ph...