I feel like the title should qualify that this is 16degF
Not 16 degrees Fahrenheit, but rather, 16 Fahrenheit degrees.
Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
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Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#12"impossibly thin" sounds a lot like "very fragile and therefore completely impractical for things that you want fabrics for".
Or maybe we now want to fill the world and coat our bodies in nanoscale plastic and silver dust?
Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#13I feel like the title should qualify that this is 16degF
The article was written for an American audience.
I feel like if you went to a French article and it said "12 degrees" you would know to convert that to Fahrenheit, if you needed. And that's an even less common situation than second-language English speakers ending up on American articles.
Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Silver nanowires" is probably the limiting factor on this one. Silver isn't that rare but it's certainly not cheap compared to normal textile fibers.
Also probably a skin and lung irritant. Lots of people have contact allergies to macroscale silver and nanowires tend to get embedded in cells in soft tissue.
Regarding nanowires, for what it's worth, nano silver is used as a highly effective antimicrobial skin cream, and none of its users complain of an allergy. In this way it also accelerates wound healing. It is even more benign than some skin antibiotics that trigger an allergy. Given this evidence, I don't think nanoscale use of silver in clothing is going to be a a concern for the vast majority of people.
Disclaimer: Silver is a slight poison and should not be used for a prolonged duration.
Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#15There have been a lot of such materials over the years, but for some strange reason, none of them ever gets commercialized. We could have been using them all over the place, on all surfaces that expose to sunlight, but they're nowhere to be found.
From the things I've seen, it almost always comes down to IP issues clashing with economic realities. The person holding the rights either can't get it done and/or won't license it to people who can (at economically viable rates), so it languishes. It's especially frustrating since the whole IP system was supposed to encourage innovation.
Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#16Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#17Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#18I'm suspicious that perhaps silver nanowires might be a health risk? I believe finely-divided silver can be toxic, at least in some circumstances.
Also, it's a composite with a plastic material, and would probably resist all attempts to recycle it, resulting eventually in microplastics (contaminated with metallic silver).
Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#19I feel like the title should qualify that this is 16degF
I feel like the title should qualify th at this is 4⁰F.
It gets up to 16 versus more insulating fabric. I'm sure it is even more "cooling" compared to my winter jacket.
Re: Impossibly thin fabric could cool you down by 16-plus degrees
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also probably a skin and lung irritant. Lots of people have contact allergies to macroscale silver and nanowires tend to get embedded in cells in soft tissue.
Regarding nanowires, for what it's worth, nano silver is used as a highly effective antimicrobial skin cream, and none of its users complain of an allergy. In this way it also accelerates wound healing. It is even more benign than some skin antibiotics that trigger an allergy. Given this evidence, I don't think nanoscale use of silver in clothing is going to be a a concern for the vast majority of people. Disclaimer:…
>and none of its users complain of an allergy.
I have a hard time imagining that's true for any material, ever.