A review of photochromism in textiles and its measurement
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Date
2017-01-01
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor and Francis
Abstract
Photochromism is a light-induced reversible change in colour
defined as: ‘A reversible transformation in a chemical species
between two forms having different absorption spectra brought
about by photo-irradiation.’ This issue of Textile Progress provides a
review of photochromism, the different methods for producing
photochromic textiles, their properties, the measurement of kinetic
colour changes, and their application in photochromic textiles.
Photochromism can be utilised in a variety of textile products from
everyday clothing to high-technology applications such as
protective textiles, medical textiles, geo-textiles and sports textiles.
Although photochromic materials have been used since 1960 to cut
down the transmission of light through the lenses in sunglasses,
there has been limited further development since that time due to
technical difficulties not only in the application of photochromic
colourants, but also with the measurement of kinetic colourchanging properties. Renewed interest in photochromic textiles has
arisen due to improved commercial potential in particular for
applications as photochromic nanofibres, in ‘smart’ textiles and in
‘smart’ clothing.
Description
Subject(s)
Colouration-decolouration, fatigue resistance, half-life, optical density, photochromic materials, photochromic textiles, photochromism, smart textiles
Citation
ISSN
0040-5167