Environmentally responsive hydrogel composites for dynamic body thermoregulation

Hydrogel composites exhibiting dynamic thermo-hydro responsive modulation of infrared radiation (IR) in the 5–15 μm range are designed for personalized body thermoregulation. Fabrication of the proposed system relies on the periodic arrangement of submicron-sized spherical fine silica (SiO2) particles within poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)-based hydrogels. The dependence of the SiO2 particles content on the IR reflection, followed by its modulation in response to any immediate environmental changes are thereby investigated. The addition of 20 wt% of SiO2 allowed the hydrogel composites to reflect 20% of the IR emitted by the human body at constant temperature (i.e. T = 20 °C) and relative humidity (i.e. RH = 0%). According to Bragg's law, we found that the smaller the distance between the SiO2 particles, the higher the IR reflection. The IR reflection further increased to a maximum of 42% when the resulting hydrogel composites are subjected to changes in relative humidity (i.e. RH = 60%) and temperature (i.e. T = 35 °C). Thermography is used to map the IR radiation emitted from the hydrogel composites when placed on the skin of the human body, demonstrating that the composite is actually reflecting IR. The latter results are supported by theoretical models that define the IR reflection profile of the resulting hydrogel composites with respect to the silica content, relative humidity and temperature.