Klimeo thermo-regulating fabric

It's not often we see the latest in nanotech coming out of French fashion houses, but Avelana and Roudière have gone and thrown expectations for a loop, announcing the Klimeo thermo-regulating fabric. Supposedly, the nano-enhanced fabric will automatically adjust to suit your environs, keeping you warm when its chilly and cool when the temperature rises. Just as importantly, it also won't cramp your style, seamlessly blending into a variety of different fabrics suitable for everyday wear. The magic ingredient is, of course, nanotechnology -- specifically, microcapsules grafted onto the fabric that change from a solid state when it's cold to a liquid state when it's warm. We somehow doubt that'll be enough to keep us nice and toasty in nothing but jeans and a tee come February, but that won't stop us from trying.

[Via Gizmag]

[Wonderboy @ Oct 18th 2006 11:18AM]

So I'll walk outside into the 30 degree weather, the nano-fibers in my shirt will solidify and begin to keep me warm... but then my body temperature will be warm and will liquify the nano-fibers, which will then re-solidify because it's cold, etc.

Interesting... or I could maybe just figure that if it's 30 degrees outside I should wear a coat and save the money I'd have otherwise spent on the expensive new "fashion" and put the money in a long-term savings account to allow me to one day afford a PS3.

[Gil @ Oct 18th 2006 11:45AM]

Are you an idiot? Seriously. Millions have been invested into this tech, countless hours of research and you think your two bit scenario automatically makes this tech obsolete.

"Interesting... or I could maybe just figure that if it's 30 degrees outside I should wear a coat and save the money I'd have otherwise spent on the expensive new "fashion" and put the money in a long-term savings account to allow me to one day afford a PS3."
Or you can get some mail bags, punch holes for feet and wear those since you need to be saving money. Cold weather? No problem! Just stack some more mailbags on yourself.



I don't know about you folks but in the last few years I've been confronted with radically different weather in the same day. It's become almost impossible to "dress right" for the entire day and I expect this to only get worse.

[Tripp @ Oct 18th 2006 11:20AM]

It looks like we are one step closer to the future... Shiny silver jumpsuits for everyone!

[ben @ Oct 18th 2006 11:33AM]

well with the progress outdoor gear has been making I don't doubt that something like this will happen soon. Unfortunately outdoor gear prices have not been making progress.

[Wonderboy @ Oct 18th 2006 11:53AM]

No, I'm not an idiot... I am however rather sarcastic. I actually laid it on pretty thick, maybe you should get a computer screen based on nano-tech that liquifies when displaying sarcasm so you'll have an easier time picking it up next time. (P.S. On the good chance that you have yet to get such a monitor, go ahead and pretend your screen has just liquified).

The only part I was semi-serious about was it being a waste of money. If I want to be warm, I'll wear a coat... If I'm too warm, I'll take it off. If you're too sensitive for this to be effective... well that's a whole other problem.

[Rick @ Oct 18th 2006 12:18PM]

Don't sweat it Wonderboy... it seems lately that this blog has attracted the "blog-police" who dutifully seek out any attempts at humor and try to quash it...

[rynth @ Oct 18th 2006 12:23PM]

yeah... i agree with rick..

Though i do wonder, when these nanothingies liqufy, will your t-shirt etc get become damp or something? or will it be more xtreme, and will the nano particles drip off and leave you with an un-wanted wet patch on your trousers?

[stanmarsh01 @ Oct 18th 2006 12:55PM]

Wow, this is only 4 year old news.

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=94289

http://www.outlast.com

[icandigthat @ Oct 18th 2006 1:17PM]

forget this for clothing, when are they making bed sheets and pillow cases out of this?

[stanmarsh01 @ Oct 18th 2006 2:03PM]

"forget this for clothing, when are they making bed sheets and pillow cases out of this?"

Read my post. A company called Outlast won an award for making bedding out of this stuff in FREAKING 2002! This is not new.

[stanmarsh01 @ Oct 18th 2006 1:43PM]

"forget this for clothing, when are they making bed sheets and pillow cases out of this?"

Read my post. A company called Outlast won an award for making bedding out of this stuff in FREAKING 2002! This is not new.

[Chocolate Starfish @ Oct 18th 2006 1:33PM]

Actually, Wonderboy's original comment - sarcastic or not - holds a lot of truth. This "technology" works the same way that putting ice in your drink keeps it cold (for a while) on a hot day. As heat from the environment is absorbed by your ice-drink mixture, the ice goes through a "phase-change" i.e. melts. Until all the ice in the mixture is melted, ideally, all the heat absorbed will go into melting it and none will go into raising the temperature of the drink. A graph of heat vs. temperature of water can be found http://www.sciencebyjones.com/phase_diagram.gif for those of you who learn visually. Notice that while the water is changing phase, the graph holds a flat line on the temperature axis. (Think outside the box for a second and realize that ice in your drink will also keep it "warm" in an environment that is colder than freezing)

So, taking this a step further towards applying it to the clothes, say you have a glass of ice water in your hand, and the glass is sitting over a flame. Your skin will remain a cool 0C/32F until all the ice melts, then when the water temp rises over 98.6F you will start to feel the warmth from the flame. The downside is that until the water is 98.6, your hand will instead feel the cold of the ice-water while it absorbs heat from your body and so you still wont be comfortable.

The nanoparticles in the clothes are doing the same thing. As they freeze and melt, the temperature of your fabric wont change until it absorbs or gives up to the environment however much heat is needed to completely change phase. At the same time, they will be absorbing or giving up heat to you. The fabric will work as advertised IF the temperature that it changes from liquid to solid phase is the same as your body temperature, and the heat going into and out of the fabric is in equilibrium - i.e. you're making as much heat as the environment is absorbing on a cold day or you're absorbing as much heat as the environment is giving on a hot day. If the second caveat is true, then you don't need these fancy clothes. Since it will almost never be true, then the clothes will maintain their temperature for as long as it takes them to absorb/giveup the amount of heat it takes to change phase. If this is a lot of heat (the flat line on the earlier graph is very long), then it may function as desired for as long as you need it to. If not, then you just got taken for a ride. These times will of course vary with how extreme the temperature of the environment is and how much heat you as a person tend to throw.

As Gil alluded, presumably these guys did their homework and picked a material that operates in a phase change reasonably close to human body temperature and require lots of heat to change phase.

[CatchWithoutArms @ Oct 18th 2006 1:50PM]

What you say about ice in water is definitely correct and a very good explanation at that. However, Scientists have been researching nanotechnology b/c at such a very small (nano=10^-9) molecules tend to not behave "ideally" or normally. I dont think this nanofiber technology is analagous to heat transfer of ice in water.

[stanmarsh01 @ Oct 18th 2006 2:04PM]

"What you say about ice in water is definitely correct and a very good explanation at that. However, Scientists have been researching nanotechnology b/c at such a very small (nano=10^-9) molecules tend to not behave "ideally" or normally. I dont think this nanofiber technology is analagous to heat transfer of ice in water."

Well, that would be true if this stuff was nano, which it isn't. They're MICROcapsules. MICRO, not NANO. And yeah, this stuff works EXACTLY the same as ice. If you bothered to even look at the webpage from the company that makes this stuff (http://www.klimeo-fashion.com/en.php?page=laboratory) you'd see that it's simple phase change principles which are identical to that of ice and water. Try doing some research before you post.

[CatchWithoutArms @ Oct 18th 2006 4:03PM]

not my fault engadget likes to regularly glaze over a story and title it incorrectly... but thats the beauty of this so-called internet, we all can write whatever we please. So i stand by my statements.

[Billy Bob @ Oct 18th 2006 10:59PM]

hey about saving money for a ps3
when they all overheat and catch on fire u can use that to warm yourself

[Jonathan @ Oct 19th 2006 8:54AM]

Has anybody considered what throwing this stuff in the washing machine would do? Does it have to be dry cleaned at low temperatures?

[Tracy L @ Oct 19th 2006 1:47PM]

It sounds interesting but I see an obvious problem with this tech. I assumed when I heard of it that the material would "puff up" when cold/solid, and "lay flat" when warm/liquid. Thus trading off airflow versus insulation.

But instead it does rely on heat transfer/absorption. The real problem is the amount of heat it can absorb or expel has a finite limit. I found nothing on their website stating what this limit is.

Example: You go outside where it's chilly and the jacket starts providing you with heat. But after 1 hour it runs out of heat to give you so now you start getting cold.

Example: Your jacket was kept in a closet. So now you put it on expecting it to keep you warm in the cold it wasn't "charged up" and has nothing to give you.

Example: You come in from the outside where it was 99 102 degrees and think "thank god for that cool AC!" But now your shirt and pants start radiating heat to counteract the AC. Everyone else wonders why you're sweating for the next hour while they feel fine.

I don't think this would work for bedsheets simply because it would need enough fibers to work over an 8-hour period.