Cool, power, move: A printable material that does it all

A new printable textile combines passive cooling with biomechanical energy harvesting to enable motion-controlled, adaptive thermal management.

Led by researchers in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the textile uses passive radiative cooling to stay cool under sunlight by reflecting solar energy while releasing heat to the surroundings. At the same time, it can harvest energy from human motion and generate electrical signals for sensing and thermal control.

A key feature of the technology is that these capabilities are built into a single printable material. Rather than assembling multiple layers with different functions, the researchers designed one material that provides both cooling and energy-harvesting capabilities.

“We use direct ink writing so the material can be printed into flexible, breathable textile structures for wearable applications like athletic clothing, for example,” said mechanical science and engineering professor Lili Cai, who led the research.

The printed textile reflected 96% of incoming sunlight and efficiently released heat. In outdoor tests under direct sunlight, it maintained temperatures approximately 3 to 6 degrees Celsius below the surrounding air.

The researchers also demonstrated how energy generated from human motion could make the textile more adaptive. Motion-generated signals can trigger and regulate heating, allowing the textile to switch between passive cooling and active heating in response to the wearer’s activity.

By bringing cooling, energy harvesting, sensing, and adaptive heating together in a printable material, the work offers a pathway toward smart textiles that can respond to changing thermal needs while reducing reliance on external energy.

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This work was published in Advanced Science.  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.76121
“Intrinsic Coupling of Radiative Cooling and Triboelectric Responses in Dual-Function ZrO₂ Nanocomposites for Adaptive Thermoregulation,” Advanced Science.
Authors: Yoon Young Choi, Pranto Karua, Md Salauddin, Lili Cai, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign