Challenging the very fabric of our thinking about wearables, two university projects have experimented with polymers, weave, and weft to create materials that have a multitude of practical uses, writes Caroline Hayes.
Research programmes into smart fabric which respond to heat offer new ways to deal with bumps and scrapes with material that shape shifts for self-repair.
The first project is Canada’s University of Waterloo, where a team has developed a smart material, believed to be the first to respond to two different stimuli – heat and electricity.
The ability to respond to two different stimuli opens up potential applications for clothing which can warm up when the wearer goes from one environment to another. An example would be clothes that can warm up on the walk to work on a cold winter morning.
The smart material is made from polymer nano-composite fibres, created from recycled plastics. The resulting combination of engineered polymer composites and stainless steel can change its colour and shape when stimuli is applied. For non-wearable applications, it can be used in vehicle design, for example for car bumpers to regain their original shape after a collision.
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