New Breakthrough Fabric Means No More Sweaty Underarms [VIDEO]

Good-bye sweaty-looking armpits.

Bioengineers at the University of California, Davis have announced a new kind of fabric that, instead of absorbing moisture, works like human skin in deflecting droplets of sweat, which simply roll away.

A paper describing the research was published recently in the journal Lab on a Chip. The research work was funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

The new waterproof fabic is the latest in microfluidic technology invented by Tingrui Pan, professor of biomedical engineering, whose Micro-Nano Innovations Laboratory at the school concentrates on making small devices that use tiny channels to manipulate fluids.

Pan and his colleagues are developing such technologies for medical diagnostic applications.

Graduate students Siyuan Xing and Jia Jiang developed a new microfluidic textile using water-attracting, threads stitched into a highly water-repellent fabric.

The two created a pattern of threads that essentially suck droplets of moisture from one side of the fabric, propel them along individual threads and expel them from the other side of the material.

To ensure development of the new fabric could meet market demands in the future, "we intentionally did not use any fancy microfabrication techniques so it is compatible with the textile manufacturing process and very easy to scale up," said Xing, the lead graduate student on the project.

The threads of the new fabric not only opens channels down which water can move, but the water-repellent properties of the surrounding fabric also help drive water down the channels. Unlike conventional fabrics, the water-pumping effect keeps working even when the water-conducting fibers are completely saturated, a result of pressure generated by the surface tension of droplets.

Meanwhile, the rest of the garment remains completely dry and breathable.

By adjusting the pattern of water-conducting fibers and how they are stitched on each side of the fabric, the researchers found they could direct where sweat is collected and where it drains.