Next-generation cooling garments aim to combat rising global heat and health risks

International warming poses a rising menace to human well being and work efficiency. Presently, about 3.6 billion individuals worldwide stay in areas extremely vulnerable to local weather change. From 2000 to 2019, greater than 480,000 heat-related deaths occurred globally every year. Excessive warmth additionally impairs focus and productiveness and worsens temper by elevating stress hormones and disrupting sleep. In response to the rising frequency of warmth waves, The Hong Kong Polytechnic College (PolyU) students are growing next-generation private cooling options that push the boundaries of typical clothes and promote sustainability.

Prof. Dahua Shou, Limin Endowed Younger Scholar in Superior Textiles Applied sciences, Affiliate Professor of the PolyU Faculty of Trend and Textiles, Affiliate Director of the Analysis Heart of Textiles for Future Trend, and Affiliate Director of the PolyU-Xingguo Know-how and Innovation Analysis Institute, has published in Science, providing new insights into sustainable private cooling utilizing superior textiles and clever wearables.

Good applied sciences, particularly clever wearables and AI, will be key to sustainable private cooling. Prof. Dahua Shou stated, “Based on the World Meteorological Group, there may be an 80% probability that no less than one yr between 2025 and 2029 would be the hottest on report, making private cooling more and more very important for nicely‑being, well being and productiveness. We’ve got been creating clever, superhero‑like clothes that present on‑demand adaptive cooling and clinician‑like well being monitoring to assist deal with the problem of utmost warmth.”

By integrating the 4 cooling mechanisms of radiation, conduction, convection and evaporation, this stand‑alone perspective outlines methods to adaptively regulate physique warmth and moisture in dynamically altering actual‑world settings. The paper additionally presents an AI‑pushed, closed‑loop framework that connects sensing, prediction, and actuation to ship customized, energy-efficient cooling, with a scalable and recyclable design that helps public well being, office security, and efficiency.

Sustainable private cooling is evolving from using passive materials to the mixing of sensible methods. Notably, spectrum‑selective textiles successfully launch mid‑infrared physique warmth whereas blocking exterior photo voltaic and concrete warmth achieve.

Thermal insulation is being engineered with conduction-tunable fillers, whereas ventilative and evaporative cooling is boosted by moisture-responsive fibers. Light-weight wearables, comparable to variable emittance gadgets, and electrocaloric and thermoelectric modules paired with versatile photo voltaic and on-body vitality storage, allow lively and controllable cooling.

These rising applied sciences strategically make use of model-selective cooling and incorporate human‑centered design for consolation, sturdiness, washability, and low weight, increasing consolation zones and decreasing dependence on air con.

Regardless of promising progress, key challenges in private cooling stay. Sweating helps cool the physique, however restricted sweat administration will increase cloth weight and cling, whereas decreasing permeability and radiative cooling effectivity, particularly throughout heavy perspiration. Actual-time adaptive thermoregulation, which responds to altering environments and particular person physiology whereas making certain consolation and security, is right however tough to attain.

Prof. Dahua Shou stated, “We additionally want interdisciplinary integration throughout textiles, thermodynamics, versatile electronics, and AI, together with scalable, recyclable manufacturing that balances sustainability, wearability, style, and efficiency. Standardized, person‑centric metrics, comparable to cooling energy per watt, thermal sensation, and person acceptance, are important for truthful comparability and adoption.”

Prof. Shou and his analysis group are tackling excessive warmth with numerous progressive applied sciences. iActive clever sportswear makes use of low‑voltage-driven synthetic “sweat glands” and a root‑like liquid community mapped to sweat zones to shortly eject perspiration as droplets, decreasing weight and cling, protecting the pores and skin dry, and eradicating sweat as much as 3 times quicker than peak human sweating.

Omni‑Cool‑Dry is a breathable pores and skin‑like cloth that routes sweat directionally whereas offering spectrum‑selective cooling. By reflecting photo voltaic and floor radiation and emitting mid‑infrared physique warmth, it helps preserve wearers cool and dry even beneath the solar, reducing pores and skin temperature by about 5°C in comparison with typical materials.

For warm workplaces, thermo‑adaptive Smooth Robotic Clothes embeds temperature‑responsive delicate actuators that broaden to thicken cloth and lure nonetheless air, fixing the issue of “one‑degree” thermal insulation. Thermal resistance varies from 0.23 to 0.48 Okay·m²/W, protecting the inside floor 10°C cooler than typical insulating clothes even when the outside temperature reaches 120°C.

SweatMD is an all‑textile, non-invasive wearable that channels recent sweat via a nature‑impressed microfluidic community and makes use of pores and skin‑pleasant sensing yarns to trace biomarkers like glucose and potassium. It delivers actual‑time, molecular‑degree well being insights comparable to indicators of fatigue and dehydration to a smartphone.

Collectively, these improvements kind an AI‑prepared ecosystem: sensors quantify physiology, fashions predict cooling demand, and clever clothes actuates focused responses. Integrating textile sensors, fiber‑primarily based coolers, and on‑physique vitality harvesters has the potential to allow self‑sustained cooling.

Spanning on a regular basis put on, in addition to sports activities, and protecting gear, these improvements bridge the hole between basic analysis and actual‑world functions to deal with world challenges. PolyU translational analysis institutes throughout Mainland cities and interdisciplinary analysis facilities, such because the PolyU-Xingguo Know-how and Innovation Analysis Institute and the Analysis Heart of Textiles for Future Trend, permits the College’s students to faucet into these cities’ various utility eventualities and collaborate with main enterprises to speed up the transformation and scalable deployment of scientific analysis achievements.

These analysis improvements earned the Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury (2025) and a Gold Medal (2024) on the Geneva Invention Exhibition, in addition to the TechConnect International Innovation Award. Prof. Shou additionally obtained The Fiber Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award, an honor awarded yearly to a single scholar worldwide.