New fabric invented by University of Massachusetts Amherst

Engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have created a fabric that uses indoor lighting to keep you warm. The technology is the result of 80 years of research into synthetic textiles based on polar bear fur. The research, published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, has now been developed into a commercial product.
 

 

Polar bears live in some of the harshest environments on Earth, shrugging off temperatures as low as -45C in the Arctic. While bears have many adaptations that allow them to thrive when temperatures plummet, scientists have paid particular attention to the adaptations of their fur since the 1940s. How does polar bear fur keep warm?

 

Many polar animals actively use sunlight to maintain body temperature, and the fur of polar bears is a well-known example. For decades, scientists have known that part of the secret to bears is their white fur. It is generally believed that black fur absorbs heat better, but it turns out that polar bear fur is very effective at transmitting solar radiation to the skin.

 

Polar bear fur is essentially a natural fiber that conducts sunlight to the bear's skin, which absorbs the light and heats the bear. And fur is pretty good at keeping all that hard-earned heat from warm skin, too. When the sun shines, it's like having a thick blanket to warm yourself up and lay the warmth against your skin.

 

The research team designed a double-layered fabric with a top layer made of threads that, like polar bear fur, transmit visible light to a lower layer made of nylon and coated with a dark material called PEDOT. PEDOT is like a polar bear's skin, which effectively keeps it warm.

 

A jacket made from this material is 30 percent lighter than an equivalent cotton jacket, and its light and heat trapping structure works efficiently enough to directly heat the body using existing indoor lighting. By focusing energy resources around the body to create a "personal climate", this approach is more sustainable than existing heating methods.