Polar bears inspire novel heat insulating material

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Beijing: Scientists have developed an insulator that mimics the structure of individual polar bear hairs and may have many real world applications in the architecture and aerospace sectors. For polar bears, the insulation provided by their fat, skin, and fur is a matter of survival in the frigid Arctic. For engineers, polar bear hair is a dream template for synthetic materials that might lock in heat just as well as the natural version.

“Polar bear hair has been evolutionarily optimised to help prevent heat loss in cold and humid conditions, which makes it an excellent model for a synthetic heat insulator,” said Shu-Hong Yu, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). “By making tube aerogel out of carbon tubes, we can design an analogous elastic and lightweight material that traps heat without degrading noticeably over its lifetime,” said Yu.

Unlike the hairs of humans or other mammals, polar bear hairs are hollow. Zoomed in under a microscope, each one has a long, cylindrical core punched straight through its centre. The shapes and spacing of these cavities have long been known to be responsible for their distinctive white coats.

However, they also are the source of remarkable heat-holding capacity, water resistance, and stretchiness, all desirable properties to imitate in a thermal insulator.