Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. From pillows to blankets to entire mattresses, manufacturers today offer a variety of products how did to keep people cool? But unlike the heated versions of these products, which have some sort of electric system inside, cooling textiles are just that textiles. So what's the secret? How do these products lower your body temperature without fancy technology?
And do they really work? The history of cooling fabric goes back to the early days of NASA, when scientists there were working on how textiles could impact someone in a space suit. Of course, NASA now utilizes other technology in its space suits to keep astronauts cool, including cooling panels with liquid filled channels and a network of narrow tubes linked to a backpack refrigeration unit. This is a far cry from the sleek shirt shorts and other athletic
were offered by fitness gear companies. The cooling technologies that go into these everyday textiles can be divided into three main categories temperature balance, temperature abatement, and phase change Materials. Fabrics that cool using temperature balance focus on wicking our bodies already try to keep us cool by creating sweat. When that moisture evaporates, it cools us off. These fabrics wick away sweat and disperse it across the fabric's surface
to evaporate faster. Typically, these fabrics are treated with a polymer that helps channel moisture. A temperature abatement, on the other hand, works by actually transferring heat, and the textile will feel cool to the touch, although it technically isn't That feeling of coolness is achieved through the conductivity of the fabric's yarn, which will usually be made of a highly conductive polyethylene, whereas wicking technology consists of a treatment
applied to the fabric. In this case, the yarn itself is made to cool. This yarn rapidly transfers heat away from its surface. Think about how different wood and metal feel to the touch. If samples of these are sitting side by side in an air conditioned room, the metal will feel cooler to the touch, even though the ambient temperature is the same for both. But when the heat of your hand is applied, some materials will, like the metal, will transfer heat away from the surface faster, giving a
cooling sensation. The polyotylene yarn used in some cooling fabrics can work in the same way. So a cool to the touch blanket that incorporates a heat conductive yarn absorbs body heat and displaces thermal energy to create a cooling effect. In both of these cases, the cooling results from transference. Either heat or humidity is transferred away from your body. Meanwhile, phase change material reals can change from liquid to solid state depending on the temperature, and so they can work
to regulate the temperature in betting. For example, these materials liquefy when they're warm, absorbing heat and thus limiting the temperature of the surface they're embedded in, and they solidify when they're cool, releasing heat and raising the surface temperature. In this way, they can maintain an ideal range of temperatures. A small phase change material capsules are embedded into fabrics to use this technology. So where are these different cooling
technologies used in apparel? Almost all cooling technology is dynamic wicking, partly because those polyethylene yarns aren't as comfortable against the skin and are more difficult to work with. But when it comes to home textiles, all three types of cooling products are available, So are these products really enough to keep you cool while you're working out or sleeping through
the night. In theory, theyhould all work, but one factor that can affect how cool you feel is how many barriers are between you and the cooling textile, non cooling garments or sheets between you and the cooling fabric cand all the effect and heat can also be trapped by any non cooling layers placed outside the cooling layer. Today's episode is based on the article how high tech fabrics cool you down when you heat up on how stuff
works dot Com, written by Carrie Whitney. Brainstuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Clang and Ramsey l. Four more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite chep