Recently, strong cold air strikes, the temperature plummeted across the whole country. Winter is coming!

In the cold, how many clothes are enough to keep warm?

Just one piece!

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst found the way to transform textiles into sewable and weavable electric heaters, and successfully made a pair of gloves.

They used a pair of ordinary cotton gloves and vapor deposition method to coat conductive polymer PEDOT on the fingers. Then a coin battery (1.8g) was used to power the gloves, so that a small amount of current can get through around the gloves and generate heat.

After testing, the gloves allow the fingers to keep the temperature for about 8h, and not too high to damage the skin. A rechargeable battery can also be used to extend the duration of use. In addition, the gloves can keep working after being torn, repaired, or even soaked in water, so that we can use them even with severe weather.

The key to the success of the design is the polymer PEDOT.

PEDOT (poly(2,3-dihydrothieno-1,4-dioxin)) belongs to the polythiophene derivative, it is a widely used conductive polymer materials polymerized from monomer EDOT with high conductivity, high electrochemical activity, environmental thermal stability, and it is not easy to be oxidized. PEDOT (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)) is mainly used in solid electrolyte capacitors, antistatic coatings, photovoltaic cells, organic electroluminescent devices, and flexible electrodes and so on.

Now, PEDOT (CAS 126213-51-2) has a new record, and contribute to the warmth of mankind. It is reported that gloves are not the only one the team have tried, they also coated with a layer of cotton yarn on the sweather, which also produced a good effect. That means this coating method can be used for a variety of clothing. Perhaps in the near future, this technology will be widely used in winter clothes.

References

Lushuai Zhang, Morgan Baima and Trisha L. Andrew. Transforming Commercial Textiles and Threads into Sewable and Weavable Electric Heaters. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2017, 9 (37), 32299-32307.