Researchers from Donghua University created a material that cools the person wearing it without using electricity. The material transfers heat, repels water and allows moisture to evaporate from the surface of the skin.

Source: American Chemical Society

Cooling the body is more energy-efficient than cooling an entire room. Air conditioning and other cooling methods contribute to 10% of all electricity consumption in the U.S. Green energy-based body cooling solutions could help lower the dependence on electricity for cooling.

Most cooling clothing and textiles have disadvantages that hold them back from widespread use. The disadvantages include poor cooling capacity, large energy consumption and time-consuming, complex and expensive manufacturing. The team set out to make a personal cooling fabric that overcomes all of these issues. The resulting material is breathable, water repellent, easy to produce and transfers heat away from the body.

To create the new material the team used electrospinning. Three materials are electrospun to create nanofibrous membranes: a polymer, fluorinated polyurethane (a water repellent version of the polymer) and boron nitride nanosheets, a thermally conductive filler. The membranes repel water from the outside. It has large pores that let sweat evaporate from skin and air to circulate through the material.

During testing, the team found that the material had thermal conductivity higher than other conventional or high tech fabrics on the market. Other uses for this material include solar energy collection, seawater desalination and thermal management of electronics devices.

A paper on this technology was published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.