Research Supervisor Connect
Clothing keeps us warm not only because they limit convection and evaporation, but also because they absorb and re-emit thermal radiation of the sun and from our own body. Even the lightest, whitest cotton shirt will still absorb 40% of the sun’s heat, and reflect half of our own body’s radiative heat back towards our skin, creating a local personal greenhouse effect. Radiative properties can be modified through nanostructuring, and with the right modifications even sustainable fabrics such as cotton, wool or bamboo fibre could be made to have increased reflectivity over the solar spectrum, and high transparency in the mid-infrared, letting our body heat escape. A textile with such radiative properties would feel cooler in the sun than exposed skin, and could even reduce the need for air conditioning indoors, thereby reducing energy consumption in a warming world.
This theoretical and numerical project will investigate radiative properties of aperiodic nanostructured natural materials, in close collaboration with experimental colleagues making and characterizing radiative cooling textiles. The successful candidate will have a strong affinity for mathematical methods and coding.
Associate Professor Boris Kuhlmey.
This theoretical and numerical project will investigate radiative properties of aperiodic nanostructured natural materials, in close collaboration with experimental colleagues making and characterizing radiative cooling textiles. The successful candidate will have a strong affinity for mathematical methods and coding.
The project is a collaboration between the University of Sydney, CSIRO in Sydney, and the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. The project will be based at the University of Sydney, but with likely stays at all three institutions. The successful candidate will have an affinity for optics and experimental physics, experimental automation with python, and have excellent practical problem-solving skills.
A scholarship may be available, please contact me if you think you have the right profile.
Please indicate why you think you are suitable for the project, and include your CV, academic transcripts, and a master’s thesis or internship report as a single pdf. If the master’s thesis or internship report is not yet completed, a draft or report from any previous research experience is suitable.
The opportunity ID for this research opportunity is 3554