Abstract
Keeping the human body in a thermal comfort state inside a room has become a challenge in recent years. While the most common strategy is to heat buildings, it requires a lot of energy. Reducing this energy consumption will have positive impacts, both economically and environmentally. We propose here to act directly on the personal thermal heating of the human body, by modulating the absorption and transmission properties of a synthetic polymer membrane in the mid-infrared (MIR). We show numerically that 5% SiO2 submicron particles inserted in polyethylene (PE) and nanoporous polyethylene (nanoPE) membranes increase the radiative heating of the membrane, reducing the required ambient temperature of a room by more than 1.1 °C. The proposed membrane can be flexible enough to be easily integrated into conventional textiles.
Highlights
The reduction of energy consumption has become a societal challenge that has stimulated research in many directions in the scientific community
To warm the human body, we showed for the first time that photonic crystal structuration of a synthetic polymer was able to increase the temperature of the human body [5]
For an appropriate set of geometric parameters, we found that the superior heating effect resulted in a 1 ◦C drop in the ambient temperature setting point
Summary
The reduction of energy consumption has become a societal challenge that has stimulated research in many directions in the scientific community. To extend the temperature adaptability to human skin, Hsu et al [6] demonstrated the ability of a reversible asymmetrical bilayer membrane to achieve dual thermal functionality (heating and cooling), each layer being characteristic of a specific emissivity in the infrared. Dual thermal functionality has been demonstrated by taking advantage of the thermal effect of temperature-sensitive shape-memory polymers [7] This dual control has been studied in the geometrical adaptation of yarns [8], with a dynamic response depending on the temperature and/or humidity. We aim to demonstrate the effect of SiO2 particles embedded in a PE membrane for heating functionality This thermoplastic polymer, used in a wide range of applications, is textile compatible and intrinsically transparent in the MIR [15]. Optimization of a nanoporous PE membrane is proposed, considering the thickness and the volume fraction of SiO2 particles, to provide a heating textile-compatible membrane that is flexible and water wicking
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