Polyethylene engineering for application in passive personal thermal management

Abstract

Thermal comfort is the mind condition when we feel satisfaction with the environmental conditions. Thermoregulatory clothing is an energy-saving way to achieve thermal comfort conditions. Lately, there have been efforts to develop materials with thermoregulatory properties. The simple structure of polyethylene makes a good option for engineering thermoregulatory fibers due to its transparency windows in the mid-IR, where we emit radiation to the environment. In this project, it is proposed an alternative method to fabricate oriented UHMWPE films with high crystallinity and high fibers and molecular chains orientation to enhance the thermal conductivity of the films. The restructuring of the films was measured using FTIR/ATR Spectroscopy, DSC, XRD, SWAXS and SEM. The films obtained show an increase in crystallinity and chains orientation as the draw ratio increase, which leads to a higher thermal conductivity.