Bidirectional thermo-regulating hydrogel composite for autonomic thermal homeostasis.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37236988.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-38779-w and PMC identifier 10220006.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Thermal homeostasis is an essential physiological function for preserving the optimal state of complex organs within the human body. Inspired by this function, here, we introduce an autonomous thermal homeostatic hydrogel that includes infrared wave reflecting and absorbing materials for improved heat trapping at low temperatures, and a porous structure for enhanced evaporative cooling at high temperatures. Moreover, an optimized auxetic pattern was designed as a heat valve to further amplify heat release at high temperatures. This homeostatic hydrogel provides effective bidirectional thermoregulation with deviations of 5.04 °C ± 0.55 °C and 5.85 °C ± 0.46 °C from the normal body temperature of 36.5 °C, when the external temperatures are 5 °C and 50 °C, respectively. The autonomous thermoregulatory characteristics of our hydrogel may provide a simple solution to people suffering from autonomic nervous system disorders and soft robotics that are susceptible to sudden temperature fluctuations.
Medical subject headings
- Hydrogels
- Body Temperature Regulation