Who hasn’t wished for clothing that stays cooler during the sultry days of summer? Thanks to the work of Trisha L. Andrew, professor of chemistry, chemistry graduate student Evan D. Patamia and undergraduate Megan K. Yee, we may all be a little closer to comfort. The team has devised a durable chalk-based fabric coating that cools the air underneath the treated fabric by up to 8 degrees Fahrenheit.
“If you walk out into the sunlight, you will get increasingly hot because your body and clothing are absorbing ultraviolet (UV) and near-infrared (near-IR) light from the sun,” says Andrew. “And as long as you’re alive, your body is generating heat, which can be thought of as light, too.”
To make people more comfortable outside, scientists have been developing textiles that simultaneously deflect the sun’s rays and push out natural body heat – a process known as radiative cooling. Some of those materials have light-refracting synthetic particles, such as titanium dioxide or aluminum oxide, embedded into spun fibers. Others use expensive organic polymers such as polyvinylidene difluoride, which require toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” In each of these cases, production on an industrial scale is simply unsustainable.
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