Optical Society awards prize to Tec researcher

In the journal “Optical Materials Express“ (OMEx), the Optical Society (OSA) has recognized Tec and MIT researcher Luis Marcelo Lozano with a prize for the best paper published by an emerging researcher in 2019.

The OSA announced that a committee of editors from the OMEx journal, chaired by MIT researcher Juejun Hu, was in charge of selecting the winning article, based on the importance and scientific quality of the research, as well as presentation of results.

The paper in question was “Optical engineering of polymer materials and composites for simultaneous color and thermal management“.

In a press release, the journal stated that the selection committee was “particularly impressed by the thoroughness and depth of the work”.

The researcher from the School of Engineering and Sciences at the Tec said that the work had emerged from Tec-MIT collaboration in the MIT NanoEngineering Group, whose lines of research include addressing the development of high thermal conductivity polymers.

He explained that color is generally associated with temperature management, and the aim of this paper was to modify thermal and optical properties independently without one affecting the other, in order to make dark colors lighter.

“We used polymer films and filled them with certain nanoparticles. On the one hand, the polymeric matrix has high thermal conductivity due to the orientation of its molecules, and on the other, the insertion of nanoparticles provides a certain color to the composite material.”

“We tested it, placed some films under a solar simulator, and saw exactly this effect, in which a dark color could become lighter,” said the researcher.
 

According to this recent OSA prizewinner, this technology could be incorporated into camping products such as tents and sleeping bags.

However, the most attractive application is in the textile industry, incorporating nanoparticles into the same polymeric matrix, but in the form of fibers to provide comfort to people through appropriate management of the heat generated naturally by our bodies.

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