New fabric can heat up more than 50 degrees to keep people warm in ultracold weather

I first imagined those aluminum blankets that they wrap people in who have fallen into a lake, or had an accident in cold or wet environments.

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These newly spun fibers were readily woven into fabric and the team knitted a tiny sweater for a teddy bear to test the properties of the smart material. The red jumper reached an impressive 128.3 F (53.5 C) after just 10 minutes of sun exposure.

How will they control this? 128 degrees is way too hot. What if it got so hot it ignited in the sun?

Also, where it is very cold, often it is when there is no sun. Some places have very few hours of daylight. And of course night is when most need more heat.

Interesting. Use it for west and east facing curtains to warm up a room?

It will be interesting to see what they end up doing with this new technology.
 
Hmmmm I have a black t-shirt that does the same thing. Try wearing it on a sunny day and it will warm right up. As far as the temp, was that INSIDE the garment or the outside temp? Makes a big difference.

"Converts light into heat" is what pretty much anything that doesn't reflect light does. And no matter what it is, if it's not black, it's not absorbing all the light to convert it.

Not impressed.
 
Hmmmm I have a black t-shirt that does the same thing. Try wearing it on a sunny day and it will warm right up. As far as the temp, was that INSIDE the garment or the outside temp? Makes a big difference.

"Converts light into heat" is what pretty much anything that doesn't reflect light does. And no matter what it is, if it's not black, it's not absorbing all the light to convert it.

Not impressed.
This goes beyond that, the fabric contains thermochromic dyes that actually produce heat from light, not just absorb it.

Will be be practical and affordable? Unknown. And probably wouldn't help at night.
 
This goes beyond that, the fabric contains thermochromic dyes that actually produce heat from light, not just absorb it.

Will be be practical and affordable? Unknown. And probably wouldn't help at night.
And violate the laws of thermodynamics? I don't think so. :)

The light is the only source of the energy heating the fabric. (infrared and visible all the way to UV). Now if the dyes on the inside absorb the various bands of light better than standard dyes to release the energy as heat and the outer layers are designed to be transparent and then hold the heat in, that's great and pretty cool and could be a lifesaver on a sunny day. But that is a wearable solar collector, not making heat from nowhere.

According to Google, 49.4% of sunlight is in the IR Bands. 42.3% in the Visible Light band and just over 8% in the UV. And Black Cloth reflects almost none of it in any band.

Any advantage this "cloth" has over a black shirt would have to be in it's ability to insulate while transferring the heat absorbed from the light to the far side of the "cloth". Again, if it can do that, great.
 
What does a person do at night and they are cold, besides freeze... stand in the middle of the freeway and wait for truck headlights I guess.
 
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