Stay Warm in the Coldest Weather with a Polar Bear Fur Sweater

Fibers said to mimic polar bear fur may one day be used in the next generation of spacesuits, military uniforms and clothing for extremely cold environments.

Under the guidance of developers at China’s Zhejiang University, this man-made fiber has already been made into sweaters and is claimed to be as warm as down feathers, the best-known natural insulator. It’s just a small part of that warmth. thickness.

The researchers make claims about the sweater’s strength and stretch in their paper, but not everyone is convinced they’ve presented enough data to back them up.

HaobaiPolar bear fur consists of a highly porous core and a dense shell, team members said. “The porous structure traps large amounts of air to block heat transfer, and the dense shell provides the hair’s mechanical strength,” he says.

Man-made fibers, on the other hand, are composed of “aerogels,” materials with low density, high porosity, and high air content (more than 90 percent by volume) encased in a rubberized exterior.

In addition to being warm, the researchers tested the fabric for practicality by subjecting it to 10,000 stretching cycles and reported no loss of structure. It has an elasticity of up to 1,600 percent and is strong enough that a single fiber can lift a mass of 500 grams.

Sweaters knitted with this fiber are “about one-fifth as thick as down for the same warmth, and are easier to wash and dye,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “Such fibers have excellent insulation and multifunctionality, and have great potential in areas such as military uniforms and spacesuits used in extremely cold environments.”

lisa lake According to a research team at Australia’s University of Technology Sydney, people have long been interested in how polar bear fur keeps the animals warm in such frigid temperatures, and researchers are looking to create a synthetic It appears they have found a way to mimic that property using materials.

but christopher hullen Researchers from Australia’s Deakin University also question the claims based on the limited data presented.

There are also many animals with hollow fur similar to polar bears, such as beavers, camels, and the Australian green possum. One of the biggest benefits of polar bear fur is not its structure, but the transparency of the fibers, which reduces heat radiation.

“It’s a nice idea, but does it really mimic polar bear fur?” says Hulen. “Probably not.”