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A Thermally Insulating Textile Inspired by Polar Bear Hair
Author(s) -
Cui Ying,
Gong Huaxin,
Wang Yujie,
Li Dewen,
Bai Hao
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201706807
Subject(s) - materials science , textile , spinning , composite material , thermal insulation , carbon nanotube , nanotechnology , fabrication , porosity , thermal , polymer , polar , layer (electronics) , medicine , alternative medicine , physics , pathology , meteorology , astronomy
Animals living in the extremely cold environment, such as polar bears, have shown amazing capability to keep warm, benefiting from their hollow hairs. Mimicking such a strategy in synthetic fibers would stimulate smart textiles for efficient personal thermal management, which plays an important role in preventing heat loss and improving efficiency in house warming energy consumption. Here, a “freeze‐spinning” technique is used to realize continuous and large‐scale fabrication of fibers with aligned porous structure, mimicking polar bear hairs, which is difficult to achieve by other methods. A textile woven with such biomimetic fibers shows an excellent thermal insulation property as well as good breathability and wearability. In addition to passively insulating heat loss, the textile can also function as a wearable heater, when doped with electroheating materials such as carbon nanotubes, to induce fast thermal response and uniform electroheating while maintaining its soft and porous nature for comfortable wearing.