Melbourne, Australia – A team at RMIT University’s school of engineering have alighted on a novel way to create cooling fabrics – incorporating nanodiamonds. These tiny particles have a carbon lattice structure, and are both easy and cheap to make.
The textiles are made by using an electrospinning process to coat a cotton fabric with polyurethane and the nanodiamonds. The material is first coated with an adhesive, and then a polymer solution incorporating both polyurethane and the nanodiamonds is electrospun onto it. The resulting web of nanofibers on the cotton fibres is then cured.
The technology works because nanodiamonds have a high thermal conductivity, making them able to draw heat out of the body when the coated side is next to the skin. The fabric gave a 2-3°C reduction in temperature during the cooling process than untreated cotton. The nanodiamonds also improved the fabric’s UV protective properties.
Shadi Houshyar, who led the team, said the technology has potential in sportswear and personal protective clothing, such as underlayers for firefighters. “While 2 or 3 degrees may not seem like much of a change, it does make a difference in comfort and health impacts over extended periods, and in practical terms, could be the difference between keeping your air conditioner off or turning it on,” she said.
The nanodiamonds could even be used to protect buildings from overheating, she said. They now plan to study the durability of the textiles, particularly during washing.
The work has been published in the journal Polymers for Advanced Technologies.
