Newswise \u2014 A new purple cooling fabric developed by Chinese and Australian researchers could help people stay cooler during scorching summer days without having to resort to wearing white.<\/p>\n
The high-tech fabric has been shown to stay up to 6.2\u00b0C cooler than conventional purple cotton when exposed to direct sunlight, potentially opening the door to a new generation of clothing designed to keep people cool during heatwaves.<\/p>\n
The breakthrough<\/a>, led by researchers from Zhengzhou University<\/a> and involving Adelaide University, tackles a difficult problem: making coloured clothing that actually cools you down.<\/p>\n Most passive cooling fabrics are white because they work by reflecting sunlight away from the body. But darker colours absorb more of the sun\u2019s energy, making them much harder to cool effectively.<\/p>\n Purple is particularly challenging because the colour comes from absorbing green light \u2013 one of the strongest parts of the solar spectrum.<\/p>\n Adelaide University Professor Jun Ma<\/a>, a materials engineer from the School of Chemical Engineering<\/a> and a co-author on the paper, said the researchers wanted to prove that effective cooling did not have to mean giving up colour.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have traditionally had to make a choice between cooling performance and appearance,\u201d Professor Ma said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur research shows that we can have both. We can make a fabric that looks purple, but at the same time reflects most of the sun\u2019s energy and releases heat very efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers created the fabric using microscopic fibres containing a purple material called a metal-organic framework (MOF) and zinc oxide nanoparticles.<\/p>\n Together, the materials give the fabric its distinctive purple colour while helping it perform like a highly effective cooling material.<\/p>\n The fabric reflects an average 87.6% of solar radiation, while also emitting 96.4% of mid-infrared radiation \u2013 allowing heat from the fabric to escape through the atmosphere towards outer space.<\/p>\n The results were striking.<\/p>\n In outdoor testing under direct sunlight, the purple fabric was:<\/p>\n 2\u00b0C cooler than commercial white cotton2\u00b0C cooler than commercially dyed purple cotton.<\/p>\n The testing also showed that simulated skin covered with the new fabric was up to 8\u00b0C cooler than uncovered simulated skin during the day.<\/p>\n That compared with a 4.6\u00b0C maximum reduction for white cotton and just 2.8\u00b0C for conventional purple cotton.<\/p>\n Adelaide University co-author Yangzhe Hou<\/a>, a PhD candidate in the School of Chemical Engineering, said the technology could eventually benefit people who spend long periods outdoors. \u201cFor outdoor workers, athletes and anyone exposed to hot weather, staying cool is not just about comfort,\u201d Hou said. \u201cWe are interested in developing fabrics that can help manage body temperature without consuming additional energy.\u201d Unlike many experimental cooling materials, the new fabric is also lightweight and flexible, can withstand significant stretching, and allows water vapour \u2013 including perspiration \u2013 to pass through.<\/p>\n It was also found to be highly water-repellent and retained its cooling performance after 50 washing cycles.<\/p>\n The fabric provided strong UV resistance and retained its optical performance after high-intensity UV age testing equivalent to about 108 days outdoors.<\/p>\n Hou said the research could ultimately pave the way for cooling clothing in a much wider range of colours.<\/p>\n \u201cThe long-term opportunity is to move beyond the idea that cooling fabrics have to be white. However, there is enormous potential to combine colour, comfort and cooling performance in the next generation of textiles.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers say the approach could potentially be adapted to other colours by using different metal-organic frameworks with different optical properties, creating opportunities for a broader range of aesthetically appealing cooling fabrics.<\/p>\n The research<\/a> is published in the journal Small. DOI: \u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/smll.74745<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newswise \u2014 A new purple cooling fabric developed by Chinese and Australian researchers could help people stay cooler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[226679,6810,49,48,13722,6811,301944,6813,3676,6808,66],"class_list":["post-869478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-adelaide-university","tag-all-journal-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-climate-science","tag-engineering","tag-fabricscooling-technologiesheat-adaptationheat-managementtextile-technologyuv-resistanceenergy-efficiency","tag-green-tech","tag-materials-science","tag-newswise","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}