During my first future materials class today, We was introduced to what future materials is. I was shown lot's of different peoples work in future materials and knit, weave, print etc... I was really interested as I have touched upon future materials both at school and in college.
We were asked to split up into pairs and asked to think of 'If everything in the world was possible, What would I grow or create? (Relevant to future materials)' The task was harder than I thought and we only came up with 4 idea's. My favourite one, The one I decided to research into was self cleaning clothing.
Research into the possibility of this idea, Is it possible?
I researched this idea and it turns out it is actually possible and engineers have created this product, it has also recently been improved.
In 2011 engineers created a coating, Like a textile finish that let's cotton materials clean themselves in sunlight. It also claims to clean it's self of odour too. The substance is not new on the market though, although it is new to textiles, it has previously been used in self cleaning windows, odour free socks and stay clean kitchen and bathroom tiles. Experiments were carried out and proved that this product worked, orange dye was placed on fabrics and was exposed to the sun for two hour, 71% of the stain has been removed by the sun which was a 'dramatic' improvement since the last experiment. Another experiment was done in which the orange dye was placed on one cloth and after washing 5 times the coating was not effected suggesting that the enhancement was good enough for everyday use as the washing and drying did not reduce the effectiveness.
Recently (2014) another similar yet more improved design has been tried, tested and successful. (See below)
Problems?
As the product is a coating, This can make the finish on your clothes a bit stiff and uncomfortable. The risk of these kind of products also, are that they can be cancerous and have birth defects.
The Silic Shirt...
The silic shirt is a new product that was funded on the website kickstart, Aamir Patel from San Francisco created this shirt. Rather than setting the fabric with a coating or a finish the hydrophobic nanotechnology is inside the shirt, making the shirt feel so soft and comfortable to wear. The way it works is that the fabric has nanotechnology bonded to the fibres in the shirt, Most liquid molecules can not touch the fabric because of a really tiny layer of air that forms between the liquid and the fabric, This is because the fabric is layered with billions of silica particles. It is washable up to 80 times and contains no cancerous chemicals.
Research: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/741186545/a-shirt-that-cleans-itself
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16225050
I have been unsuccessful in finding any designers that have worked in this field, which is understand able as this type of clothing is a functional clothing with restrictions. Not suitable for fashion.
Thank you for reading
Becca!
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