Cloth Made of Nanowires for Personal Thermal Management

A recent study conducted by the scientists from the Stanford University has engineered a special cloth material made of nanowires. According to the researchers, heating consumes large amounts of energy and is a primary source of greenhouse gas emission, which ultimately leads to global warming. They explained that although energy-efficient buildings are developing quickly based on improving insulation and design, a large portion of energy continues to be wasted on heating empty space and nonhuman objects. Hence the researchers demonstrated a system of personal thermal management using metallic nanowire-embedded cloth that can reduce this wastage of energy in the form of heat. The metallic nanowires, scientists explain, form a conductive network that is highly heat insulating because it reflects human body’s infrared radiation.

It also allows Joule heating to complement the passive insulation that takes place with the nanowires. Due to the nanowires porous structure, both the breath-ability and durability of the original cloth is still kept intact. After intense experiments, conducted by the scientists, the research has concluded that the new nanowire cloth can efficiently warn the human body and also save thousands of watts per person as compared to traditional indoor heaters.



Source-Medindia