Shang S., Chiu K-L
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK
Keywords: architextiles, bionic finishing technology, Saharan silver ant, solar heat shielding ability, ZnO microrod
The current work developed a bionic coating technology that mimics the micro-hair arrays of Saharan Silver Ant (SSAnt) on the architextiles to enhance their solar heat shielding capability. To do so, the Al-ZnO microrods were synthesized via hydrothermal method and coated on the polyester fabrics in parallelly aligned way by a Meyer rod coating. The fabric properties coated with microrods were investigated with various tests. An outdoor solar exposure test was conducted to measure the solar heat shielding capability of the coated fabric. The diameter of the synthesized Al-ZnO microrods are about 0.8 – 2.6 m and have a length of about 10 – 40 m, which are similar in size to the SSAnt micro-hairs. The coated microrods are parallelly aligned along the fabric warp direction. The solar heat gain coefficient of the coated fabric is 23% lower than the original polyester fabric. The coated fabric has no degradation after exposed in simulated sunlight for 1440 hours. Under sunlight, the ground temperature covered by the microrods coated fabric is about 10 oC lower than that of covered by the original Polyester fabric.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: TechConnect Briefs 2019
Published: June 17, 2019
Pages: 233 - 236
Industry sector: Energy & Sustainability
Topics: Catalysis, Energy Storage
ISBN: 978-0-9988782-8-7