Dual-Mode, Sustainable Textile with Asymmetric Optical and Wettability Design for Efficient Personal Moisture–Thermal Management

Abstract

Integrating radiative cooling or solar heating into personal thermal management (PTM) textiles has attracted considerable interest. However, most current PTM textiles exhibit single functionality, limited biocompatibility and degradability, and the impact of intense perspiration is often ignored. Herein, a dual-mode polylactide-based PTM textile (DMTex) with asymmetric optical properties, wettability, and pore size distribution for efficient personal moisture and thermal management is designed via layered electrospinning. The unique optical structure and addition of functional particles endow the cooling side of DMTex with excellent solar reflectance (96.97%) and infrared emissivity (86.93%), whereas the heating side has 85.83% solar absorptance. Compared with white and black polylactic acid fabrics, DMTex achieves an additional cooling effect of 14.32 ℃ and a heating effect of 13.09 ℃ under 1100 W m⁻² solar radiation. Moreover, the three-layer construction design endows DMTex with exceptional unidirectional moisture-wicking and anti-backflow performance. In addition, DMTex exhibits excellent wearability, biocompatibility, and degradability. Such a dual-mode and sustainable DMTex presents great potential for achieving efficient personal moisture and thermal comfort.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

Radiative cooling / Evaporative cooling / Solar heating / Janus wettability / Personal thermal management

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RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Donghua University, Shanghai, China