Battery material helps people keep their cool

‘Indoor spacing heating and cooling is a major part of energy consumption around the world,’ says Yi Cui from Stanford University. ‘We would like to find a way to better cool off the human body so we can save the energy of air conditioning.’

A cheaper way to cool down is by wearing thin cotton shirts or linen, but the materials end up soaking up sweat and stopping infrared body heat from escaping. IR radiation accounts for up to 50% of body heat loss, so if scientists can design a textile that is transparent to it, the public can wear a garment that cools them down during those heady summer days.

Cui and his colleagues have now found such a material, albeit from an unlikely source. The team noticed that the polyethylene separator (nanoPE) used in lithium–ion batteries has an interconnected series of nanopores that resemble a fibrous textile.

This article provides a link to coverage by Chemistry World. The article features a video explaining the research and its impact in simple terms.