Antimicrobial & easy-care SmartPE fabrics
Year
2019
Project team
Svetlana V. Boriskina & Gang Chen with Marcelo Lozano and Matteo Alberghini
73 percent
of fabrics end up in landfills
Smart PE material
regulates body temperature
Textile
is lightweight, recyclable and stain-resistant
Reduce and reuse plastic waste
Conventional fabrics absorb body heat and perspiration, providing fertile ground for bacterial growth. Textile production pollutes water with dangerous toxins, and 73% of fabrics end up in landfills. This project is developing a lightweight, recyclable, and stain-resistant SmartPE polyethylene textile that passively regulates body temperature via control of radiation, thermal conduction, and evaporation; inhibits bacterial growth; saves energy and water during fabrication and usage; and can help to reduce and reuse plastic waste.
Could we recycle plastic bags into fabrics of the future?
Engineers have developed self-cooling fabrics from polyethylene, a material commonly used in plastic bags.