Warming up human body by nanoporous metallized polyethylene textile

TLDR

Space heating is the largest energy use in buildings, imposing a significant societal burden, and much of this energy is wasted heating empty spaces that could instead be warmed passively by the human body. The study demonstrates a nanophotonic textile with tailored infrared properties for passive personal heating using nanoporous metallized polyethylene. The textile is built by layering an IR‑reflective, nanoporous metallized polyethylene over an IR‑transparent base, yielding 10.1 % emissivity and suppressing heat loss while maintaining comfort. The textile reduces the heating set‑point by 7.1 °C, surpassing other radiative heating textiles by over 3 °C, and can cut building heating energy by more than 35 %, helping alleviate global energy and climate challenges.

Abstract

Space heating accounts for the largest energy end-use of buildings that imposes significant burden on the society. The energy wasted for heating the empty space of the entire building can be saved by passively heating the immediate environment around the human body. Here, we demonstrate a nanophotonic structure textile with tailored infrared (IR) property for passive personal heating using nanoporous metallized polyethylene. By constructing an IR-reflective layer on an IR-transparent layer with embedded nanopores, the nanoporous metallized polyethylene textile achieves a minimal IR emissivity (10.1%) on the outer surface that effectively suppresses heat radiation loss without sacrificing wearing comfort. This enables 7.1 °C decrease of the set-point compared to normal textile, greatly outperforming other radiative heating textiles by more than 3 °C. This large set-point expansion can save more than 35% of building heating energy in a cost-effective way, and ultimately contribute to the relief of global energy and climate issues.Energy wasted for heating the empty space of the entire building can be saved by passively heating the immediate environment around the human body. Here, the authors show a nanophotonic structure textile with tailored infrared property for passive personal heating using nanoporous metallized polyethylene.