World's famous hotels,water fountains, and other buildings adopt to change the color of theirlightening to create a stunning environment. Green... red... yellow... and blue!Garden chameleons change their body color amazingly fast. How would it feel, towear clothes that changes color by itself every now and then?

 

Clothes normally change theircolor once it fades. New type of dyes are discovered which will change thecolor of the clothes once they are exposed to sunlight. Photochromic dyescreate a dramatic effect on the clothes and make them to change their color,when the clothes are exposed under sunlight and absorb the ultra violetradiation. Once the radiation is removed, the dyes resume their original color.Depending upon the environment, day or night, sunlight or shadow, the clothescan change their colors.

 

The Technology:

 

Photochromic means the ability tochange color when exposed to sunlight. These dyes generate a dynamic reversiblecolor change under the sunlight or ultra violet (UV) light. When under sunlight,or UV radiation, the molecular structure changes allowing the photochromiccompound to turn into a dark color, and the effect can be reversed when thelight is faded. An optical medium contains one or more dyes and polymer whichforms liquid crystalline phases. Information is written in the liquidcrystalline polymer layer through a laser. The polymer gets heated up above aphase transition temperature. When it is cooled, the change is frozen in aglass state. The material posses high contrast storage, high sensitivity, goodstability and resolution. These dyes are off-white when they are not exposed tosunlight or UV radiation. It gains color when exposed to sunlight or UV light.

 

Chameleon Clothing:

 

These dyes can be applied tofabrics through conventional printing, dyeing, extrusion and spraying methods.It can be used in a variety of other applications:

 

  • It can be used on garments to print brand name or logo to prevent its duplication.
  • Can be used for security devices that can be observed spectroscopically or by specialized instruments.
  • Can be used in packaging industries.
  • Can be used in making fashionable materials like footwear, furnishings etc.
  • Used to make ophthalmic lens that changes its clear color to dark while at outdoors.

 

Constraints to its CommercialViability:

 

Despite of the amazing effects,these dyes create on the garments; it is still not commercially successful. Thenature of photochromic dyes not being water soluble makes it impossible toapply on wool or cotton. These dyes only dissolve in solvents which arecompatible with synthetic textiles. Apart from this, these dyes do not have thecapacity to withstand heat. Therefore it gets damaged and loses its propertieswhen the process of dyeing fabrics is to be carried out at high temperatures.

 

Photochromic dyes can create anew trend in the fashion industry. It will be of great aid to apparelmanufacturers by providing novel marketing opportunities. Outfits with changingmotifs, letters, and patterns that are visible in the sunlight and fades in theshadow will clearly make a fashion statement, and a revolution in the apparelindustry.

 

References:

 

  1. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1665)%>" target="_blank">http://textile.2456.com
  2. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1665)%>" target="_blank">http://www.dyes.com
  3. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1665)%>" target="_blank">http://www.thesmarttime.com
  4. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1665)%>" target="_blank">http://www.nationmaster.com