The increase in global heat levels over the past years has made scientists and researchers find solutions for beating the mounting heat. Numerous kinds of solutions are proposed and implemented to combat the heat. This has moved towards designing clothing that allow minimum heat absorption. Naturally, it is more convenient and easier to find ways to trap heat and adjust the attire for cold weather. It takes a more innovative and unique approach to design clothes for countering the effect of increasing heat around in the atmosphere.
The new technology created by scientists has the potential of dropping the body’s temperature by 5 degrees Celsius. The fabric looks like a normal t-shirt but has this power inside. Usually, lighter colors are used in making summer clothing, so they absorb less heat. The new method reflects hazardous hot waves of sun along with Ultraviolet rays and near-infrared rays that are most responsible for heating up surfaces.
The proposed fabric uses mid-infrared rays that have a longer wavelength and instead of staying in the atmosphere, they are reflected to the space directly, cooling the surface behind. This mechanism is often used in roofs and other surfaces to deflect sunlight.
Engineers at Zhejiang University and Tao Guangming of Huazhong University of Science and Technology are the minds behind this innovation. They have created a fabric that will absorb heat from the body of the wearer and reflect it as mid-infrared radiation or MIR. The experiment was done on a graduate student who sat in the sun for an hour with the vest half made from this material and other half with the regular cotton. It was measured that the side with this fabric was 5 degrees cooler than the other one. The cost of this material is expected to be only 10% higher than the regular one but optically, it works like a mirror. The fabric will soon be commercially available.
