Fashioning Functional Fabrics

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Fashioning Functional Fabrics Tim Palucka Juan Hinestroza, an assistant professor of Fiber Science in the Department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, cannot wait for one of his PhD students to disappear. But not in a bad way—her disappearance would mark the successful culmination of years of research. Christina Diaz, a doctoral candidate, is attempting to coat cotton fabrics with nanoparticles having functional polymer molecules attached to their surfaces. These particles are aimed at reducing the near-infrared signal of fabrics, potentially making them invisible to someone wearing night vision goggles in the dark. The defense industry is interested in such a fabric for soldiers’ uniforms for nighttime maneuvers. “I told her she can graduate the day she becomes invisible,” Hinestroza said. “I’ll be wearing my night vision goggles and if I cannot see her, she gets her PhD.” He waits a beat before dropping the well-timed punchline. “She told me that she would just not show up.” This project is one of many that Hinestroza is leading in his efforts to understand the interface between natural and synthetic materials, which is his overriding scientific passion. After starting five years ago by depositing 20-nmthick polymer films on natural fibers, he switched to working with inorganic films. The next step was to move from thins films to discrete nanomoieties— specifically, nanoparticles. “We started with silver, gold, and platinum, and then we moved to ruthenium and palladium,” Hinestroza said. “Initially we were interested in how the static charge of these particles interacted with these fibers, but now we are finding applications for these platforms—killing bacteria, decomposing toxic gases, and detecting viruses or allergens.” All of this functionality is possible on a flexible, wearable substrate, like cotton. And it is this property—wearability—that brought Hinestroza’s group the most publicity they have received to date, including unexpected coverage by ABC News, CNN, NPR, and the BBC, among others. These high profile media outlets became interested in this arcane scientific research when nanoparticles made their premier on the runway at the April 2007 Cornell Design League fashion show, as coatings on a designer dress and jacket. None of this would have happened without the inspiration of Olivia Ong, then a design student in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology’s Department of Fiber 158

Christina Diaz, a doctoral candidate at Cornell in Juan Hinestroza’s group, prepares nylon-cotton camouflage fabric coated with colloidal polystyrene particles through convective and electrostatic self-assembly. Her goal is to make the fabric invisible to someone wearing night vision goggles.

Science and Apparel Design. Ong, who graduated in December 2007, was one of Hinestroza’s undergraduate students, so she was aware of his pioneering attempts to incorporate nanoparticles into fabrics. She decided to use some of these fabrics in her “Glitterati” line for that year’s annua

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