Development of a Color-Changing Face Mask for Fever Detection Applications

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Textile Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Wearable technology for health monitoring is advancing.
• Early fever detection is crucial for timely medical intervention.
• Traditional fever detection methods can be cumbersome.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a color-changing fabric face mask for non-invasive fever detection.
• To evaluate the responsiveness of Reversible Thermochromic Leuco dye (RTL) on different fabric types.
• To identify key fabric properties influencing the color-change performance for fever detection.

Main Methods:

• Five fabric types (PE, CO, TC, PL, PA) were coated with blue RTL, changing color at 37.5 °C.
• Color change responsiveness was evaluated based on thermal properties.
• Fabric thermal conductivity, thermal absorptivity, and heat flow were measured.

Main Results:

• Fabrics with higher thermal absorptivity and heat flow exhibited faster color transitions.
• Polyethylene (PE) fabric showed the best performance with rapid color change (4.20 s) due to high thermal absorptivity (312.8 Ws⁰.⁵m⁻²K⁻¹) and heat flow (2.11 Wm⁻²).
• Fabric thickness significantly impacts thermal resistance and color-change time, with thicker Polyamide (PA) fabric showing a slower response (11.8 s).

Conclusions:

• Thermal absorptivity and heat flow are more effective indicators than thermal conductivity for selecting fabrics for color-changing applications.
• Fabric structural properties, especially thickness, play a critical role in thermal transfer and response time.
• This color-changing fabric mask technology offers a promising approach for simple and continuous fever monitoring.