Numerous wearables have been imagined to monitor physical activities with medical, preventive or performance objectives. With Sponge Suit, Fashion Tech now focuses on environment. What if clothing could be an eco-friendly solution?
After depolluting plants, efficient to clean your interior by transforming chemicals moving in the air into nutrients and stocking them in their tissues, a new concept has been revealed. In fact, a team of researchers from the California Riverside University has invented an unique swimsuit that is able to absorb polluting materials present in oceans. Rewarded with a “Best Innovation in technics and design” award at Reshape 15, Sponge Suit is made of a flexible electro-plastic frame that is 3D printed, and a filling material derived from carbon.
This discovery from de Mihri & Cengiz Ozkan, professors at UC Riverside, works like a sponge: it treats water and holds back polluting particles. “This way, SpongeSuits helps us clean seas by a simple swimming activity. We do not realize that the sea pollution trickles down to our beaches, and we are swimming in it. We might as well make an impact when we do so. “ tells us Pinar Guvenc, a member of the team.
(Credits Reshape)
The revolutionary material, both porous and hydrophobic is able to absorb up to 25 times its weight and captures oils, chemicals and salt present in the water. « All polluting particles are captured in the nanoporous architecture of the sponge, and nothing will touch your skin», says the researcher.
Indeed, no elements can spread out the swimming suit until it is heat up to 1000°C. Once you achieved such temperatures, the materiel turns liquid and can then be recycled and reused to produce a new swimming suit. The sponge insert can be used 20 times without losing its absorption abilities.
« Giving a structure to the Sponge was not easy, and we wanted to make sure the material remains in place after use. So for the first prototype, we resolved that problem by encapsulating it with a 3D print shell. For next prototypes, we are working with the team at UC Riverside to have the Sponge as a fabric, to use it on its own»
Join practicality and fun: this extremely light bikini (54grams) is flexible and perfeclty fits your shape, allowing you to enjoy a bath while depolluting water, with absolutely no health danger.
This innovation could even go further than bikinis… « We’d like to incorporate the Sponge material in to other consumer products and explore its applications in other industries such as naval architecture and building construction » expects the researcher.
LOOK FORWARD PERSPECTIVE :
The fashion sector has a great role to play in the way global consumption should adapt to the limits of what our planet can offer and endure. Numerous charities, like Fashion Revolution, Clean clothes or Greenpeace try to change mentalities in favor of a cleaner, more ethical fashion.
Between biosewing, 3D printing or CO2 dye… Science is always more surprising and innovative, while giving us a radical vision of the future of fashion: a responsible one.