Design of silica coated polyamide fabrics for thermo-regulating textiles

Abstract

Efficient thermal management is essential for the energy balance and thermal comfort. In this context, the design of textiles, which can modulate the infrared radiation emitted by the human body, is attractive. These fabrics will manage the microclimate between the skin and fabric. The proposed textile design consists of the coating of commercial woven fabrics based on polyamide 6–6 by a dip-coating process. The coating is based on the incorporation of fine spherical silica particles with a submicron size within thermosensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogels. Neat commercial fabrics reflect 12% of the radiation, while the addition of silica particles leads to a reflection of 24% of the infrared radiation in the 5–15 μm wavelengths range. The infrared radiation reflection capacity of the coated fabrics can be increased by managing the size and the content of the silica particles, which allows reaching 36% of reflected radiation. Our findings open opportunities for warming up fabrics and thus reduce energy consumption in heating close space.