Electricity-Free Cooling Material Is Inspired by Camel Fur
13th November 2020
Materials stay cooler when water evaporates off of them, but once all the water is gone, the cooling effect stops. Bearing this in mind, MIT scientists have developed a camel fur-inspired material that could keep items cool without using electricity.
Although it might initially seem like a bare-skinned camel would stay cooler overall than one covered with fur, that isn’t the case. The fur acts as a gas-permeable insulating layer, shading the animal’s skin from external heat while still allowing sweat to evaporate off of it. As a result, the evaporative cooling effect lasts longer – the camel still sweats, but not as much as the hypothetical bare-skinned one would before becoming dehydrated.