Engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a synthetic fiber inspired by polar bear fur, which efficiently conducts light and traps warmth, making it useful in cold weather.
Three researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have completed an 80-year quest to develop a synthetic textile based on polar bear fur. The findings have recently been published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, and plans are underway to commercialize the material.
Since the 1940s, scientists have been interested in one aspect of their anatomy — their fur.
Typically, we think that the best way to stay warm is to avoid the weather. Yet there is another approach: One of the most significant discoveries of the last few decades is that many polar animals actively utilize the sunlight to maintain their temperature. The polar bear fur is a well-known example.
This new textile has a "greenhouse" effect that keeps you warm in the face of polar bears. Credit: Viola et al., 10.1021/acsami.2c23075
White fur is the key to polar bears' secrets, according to scientists for decades. One might think that black fur would be better at absorbing heat, but it turns out that polar bears' fur is extremely efficient at transmitting solar radiation toward the bears' skin.
"But the fur is only half the equation," says the paper's senior author, Trisha L. Andrew, an associate professor of chemistry and adjunct in chemical engineering at UMass Amherst University. "The other half is the polar bears' black skin."
Andrew explains that polar bear fur is essentially a natural fiberoptic system that transmits light down to the bear's skin, which absorbs the light and warms the bear. However, the fur is also extraordinarily skilled at preventing the now-warmed skin from absorbing all of that hard-won warmth.
Andrew and her team have created a bilayer fabric with a top layer composed of threads that, like polar bear fur, emit visible light down to the lower layer, which is made of nylon and coated with a dark material called PEDOT. PEDOT, like the polar bears' skin, warms quickly.
A jacket made of this material is 30% lighter than a cotton jacket, yet it will keep you warm at temperatures 10 degrees cooler than the cotton jacket could handle, as long as the sun is shining or a room is well lit.
Wesley Viola, the paper's lead author, said that space heating consumes enormous amounts of energy that is mostly fossil fuel-derived. "The light-heat trapping structure works effectively enough to imagine using existing indoor lighting to directly heat the body."
Wesley Viola, Peiyao Zhao, and Trisha L. Andre refer to "Solar Thermal Textiles for On-Body Radiative Energy Collection Inspired by Polar Animals," published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces on 5 April 2023. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c23075
Soliyarn has begun manufacturing the PEDOT-coated cloth.
