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TORONTO — Researchers say they have successfully created a synthetic version of polar bear fur that is not only lighter than cotton but also warmer.
Three engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a two-layer fabric that models not only the bear’s fur but also its black skin that helps it stay warm.
The researchers say their work, published April 5 in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, caps an 80-year quest to create a fabric that mimics polar bear fur.
They say the fabric is already in development for commercial use.
“While our fabric really shines as outerwear on sunny days, the light-heat trapping structure works well to imagine using existing indoor light to directly heat the body,” said Wesley Viola, the lead author of the paper, in a university news story published Monday.
“By focusing energy resources on the ‘personal climate’ around the body, this approach could be more sustainable than the status quo.”
Researchers say that the white fur of polar bears is effective in transmitting solar radiation towards their skin.
“But fur is only half the equation,” said Trisha L. Andrew, the paper’s senior author. “The other half is the black skin of polar bears.”
Andrew says polar bear fur acts as a “natural fiber optic,” bringing sunlight to the skin, absorbing the light and warming the bear.
At the same time, the fur also helps prevent the skin from overheating, much like a thick blanket that warms itself and then traps the heat, the researchers said.
Synthetic fabric works in a similar way with a top layer of threads that conduct light to a lower layer made of nylon and coated with a dark material called PEDOT, which conducts heat.
Researchers say that a jacket using this material will be 30 percent lighter than another made of cotton but will make the wearer more comfortable in temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius, as long as the sun is out.
The scientists said that a Boston-based company called Soliyard has already started making fabric coated with this PEDOT material.