fabric tagged posts

Researchers have engineered a new fabric from synthetic yarn with a carbon nanotube coating that is activated by temperature and humidity, releasing heat in warm humid conditions and trapping heat when conditions are cool and dry. Under hot, humid conditions, the strands of yarn compact and activate the coating, which changes the way the fabric interacts with infrared radiation. They refer to the action as “gating” of infrared radiation, which acts as a tunable blind to transmit or block heat.

“This is the first technology that allows us to dyn...

A piece of fabric was woven with special strands of material that harvest electricity from the sun and motion. Credit: Georgia Tech

Georgia Institute of Tech researchers have developed a fabric that can simultaneously harvest energy from both sunshine and motion. Combining two types of electricity generation into one textile paves the way for developing garments that could provide their own source of energy to power devices such as smart phones or GPS. “This hybrid power textile presents a novel solution to charging devices in the field from something as simple as the wind blowing on a sunny day,” said Prof. Zhong Lin Wang.

To make the fabric, Wang’s team used a commercial textile machine to weave together solar cells constructed from lightweight polymer fibers with fiber-based triboelectr...

It’s surface changes appearance automatically when exposed to water, whether directly, or via humidity. Pinecones open when dry and close when wet, to provide optimal conditions for spreading seeds. They do so by simply reacting to water—it seeps into the woody leaves (microsporophylls) and causes them to droop. Inspired by this simple process, student Chao Chen of the Royal College of Art in London dissected cones to see how they were put together and then used what he learned to create objects or coverings.

He has created an artificial pinecone, a wall hanging (or covering) that self-modifies when it gets wet to reveal artful coloring, an overhang that allows light to pass through when the sun is shining, but closes when it rains to keep those underneath dry and a strip for insert...