High-power multi-level kirigami materials for active wearable cooling

Research question

A major opportunity for saving energy is to transition from cooling houses and vehicles, to cooling individuals through active wearable coolers. This project aims to develop materials for seamless integration of thermoelectric cooling into clothing. This requires developments of both composite material concepts and fabrication strategies. A combination of laser ablation and screen printing will be explored to achieve scalable and sustainable processing routes.

Sustainability aspects

Significant energy savings can be achieved by individual cooling (≈ 0.1 kW) instead of house cooling (≈ 3 kW). The fabrication of wearable cooling clothing should minimize the impact on the environment. Therefore, processes around laser ablation (no chemicals) and screen printing (additive, low waste) will be developed to achieve scalable and sustainable fabrication of devices.