In exploring fiber-based materials, the advantages of their inner constructions and displayed wettabilities diversify their applications and especially facilitate the development of immiscible liquid separation. When considering the basis of their liquid‒phase separation properties, such fibrous materials can be employed in more abundant and novel application fields in addition to oil–water separation. This article reviews the recent progress in the development of fiber-based materials with special surface wettabilities and further explores their potential in immiscible liquid separation-related fields, such as liquid/liquid mass transfer, and explores related applications in environmental purification, resource collection, energy storage and other fields. This article also explores the underlying nature that drives the wetting performance of fibrous surfaces, extends more diversified underliquid wetting models, and fully summarizes the separation mechanism and the latest corresponding applications, opening up an avenue for identifying the significance of devisable wetting performances and developing more diversified application potentials. Finally, this review proposes current challenges and expected developments in superwetting fiber-based materials with immiscible liquid separation abilities.

Electrospinning is a straightforward and adaptable technique for creating ultrafine fibers with distinctive chemical and physical characteristics, making them widely applicable across diverse fields. The applications depend on the richness of the morphology and structure of the electrospun fibers and adjustability of the surface properties. Traditional electrospinning is a dry process, with a solid collector, which has limited control over the fiber morphology and structure. Wet electrospinning replaces the traditional solid collector with a liquid coagulation bath, which can yield fibers with porous, bending, and twisting structures. In addition, the fiber surface can be modified and functionalized to prepare continuous nanofiber yarn, which considerably improves the performance of electrospun fibers in some applications. Wet electrospinning promotes the industrial production of electrospun fibers in the textile fields. Therefore, in view of the rapid development of wet electrospinning in the past few years, this paper briefly reviews the recent advances, including the basic principles, device modifications, novel morphologies and structures, and material and product applications. The study explores the research prospects and future development potential of wet electrospinning based on a careful review from the perspective of different application fields.

Rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs) possess a higher theoretical volumetric capacity than lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and offer a sustainable, low-cost alternative. However, the performance of AIBs fails to meet commercial standards due to the challenges experienced including volume changes caused by interfacial issues, side reactions of the electrolyte with electrode, and low cyclic stability. These issues are attributed to the inability of existing cathode materials to perform effectively. To address these challenges, 1-dimensional (1D) structures, especially nanofiber (NF) cathodes offer a promising solution due to their higher aspect ratios, specific surface area, flexibility, and quantum scale effects. To date, there has been no comparative analysis of the electrochemical and structural performances of NF based cathodes in AIBs. Thus, this review focuses on the recent developments in various transition metal oxides and chalcogenides of (Mo, V, Mn, Ni, Cu, W, Se, and Co) along with carbon-based NFs as cathodes for AIBs. Challenges were observed in adopting trivalent Al³⁺ cations as charge carriers and maintaining the structural integrity of the cathode. Several novel approaches have been developed to enhance electrical conductivity, including the incorporation of the metal oxides/chalcogenides with the carbon NF substrates, crystallizing the nanoparticles at high temperatures, and using self-assembly and templating techniques to create multi-dimensional NF films. Other battery components such as separators were replaced with carbonaceous structures in the MnSe based cathodes to increase ion mobility, and Mo current collectors to prevent dendrites. This review includes prospects aimed at improving performance and functionality, based on observations from the discussed work and innovations in AIBs such as compositing, surface functionalization, and defect engineering through ion doping.

Graphene fiber materials have emerged as key enablers in the advancement of wearable electronics due to their outstanding electrical conductivity, mechanical strength and flexibility. This review explores the fabrication techniques of graphene fibers, including wet spinning, electrospinning and dry spinning, which have been refined to produce high-performance fibers tailored for various wearable applications. Graphene fibers demonstrate exceptional functionality in wearable sensing technologies, such as strain, pressure and humidity sensors, while also showing promises in flexible energy storage devices like supercapacitors and batteries. Moreover, fabrication techniques like weaving, spinning and additional encapsulations have enabled the integration of graphene fibers into smart textiles, enhancing flexibility and durability. These methods ensure seamless electronic integration into fabrics for applications in flexible displays and wearable systems. By summarizing all the advances of graphene fibers in wearable electronics, this review provides a roadmap for future research directions. Future developments will focus on enhancing structural performance, hybridization with other materials and scalable fabrication techniques to support commercialization. These advancements position graphene fibers as a critical material for next-generation wearable electronics, offering seamless integration of functionality, comfort and durability.

Excessive energy consumption, especially space heating and cooling, is one of the major challenges facing mankind. Smart heat-moisture management textiles can effectively regulate heat-moisture comfort between the environment and skin, greatly reducing energy consumption; these results are in line with sustainable development goals. In this work, a skin-inspired adaptive heat-regulating fabric based on heat-responsive shape-memory ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer fibres and traditional cotton fabric is used. Furthermore, single-sided hydrophobic finishing is introduced to provide the fabric with unidirectional moisture transport. Owing to the shape memory effect, the smart fabric has an environment-adaptive and responsive dynamic structure in the form of a heat-induced gap opening and cool-induced gap closing. As a result, the heat conductivity of the smart textile can be switched from 0.086 to 0.089 W/m·K. Moreover, the air permeability and moisture evaporation can be regulated between 443.5 mm/s, 1761.81 g/(d·m²) and 461.7 mm/s, 1963.8 g/(d·m²), reversibly and repeatedly; the unidirectional moisture transport capacity with a unidirectional moisture index of 193.2 can also be regulated to synergistically improve the heat-moisture comfort, and the entire process results in zero carbon emission. Moreover, we demonstrate the application of the smart adaptive fabric in heat-moisture management fields, attaining a cooling effect of 4.35 °C and a breathability difference of 89.6 mm/s; these values correspond to more than 30% building cooling and heating energy savings, and these results are in line with the sustainable and zero-carbon trends. The shape memory adaptive heat-moisture management fabric will likely have broad prospects in smart thermoregulation textiles, wearable fields, electronic skin, outdoor, medical, military, and energy-saving fields.

Stable data acquisition and accurate recognition of motion states are critical for biomimetic robots operating in complex environments. This study proposes flexible gait sensors that can detect pressure and vibration for quadruped robots. These sensors are fabricated using a template-confined electrospinning technique, allowing for direct customization of protruding structures. The developed gait sensor exhibits a maximum capacitive sensitivity of 1.237 kPa^-1, a detection extending range up to 1000 kPa, and a fast response time of 5 ms. Leveraging their lightweight nature, these sensors can detect vibrations at various weight loads, frequencies, and amplitudes. Moreover, a recognition process combining these gait sensors with deep learning techniques for quadruped robot applications has been studied. It demonstrates the capability of the sensors to monitor diverse locomotion poses and states of the robot, achieving impressive accuracies of up to 97.50% for gait recognition and 98.04% for abnormal disturbances. This research offers potential applications in developing electronic skins for robots and provides promising solutions for enhancing robot performance in challenging environments.

Wearable electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding devices are highly demanded to reduce the endlessly emerging EM pollution. Undesired durability and limited scale-up production capacity are the main obstacles to hinder the industrialized application of flexible EMI wearables. Here, a scalable Fe₃O₄/polypyrrole (PPy) embedded cotton/polypropylene (FP@CP) fabric is introduced for EMI shielding and Joule heating, which is achieved by a unique particle flow spinning method. This method can continually manufacture functional yarns in large quantities, followed by weaving into fabrics. The core-sheath yarn structure can highly embed Fe₃O₄/PPy shielding layer by polypropylene (PP) strips, which protects internal functional components from leakage or damage by the environment. Consequently, the obtained fabrics present greater durability (50 washing and 465 abrasion cycles) in comparison with most reported EMI devices. The EMI shielding mechanism was investigated through both experimental and simulation methods. It suggests that the combination of EMI reflection and absorption modes synergistically contributes to enhancing the EMI shielding property of obtained fabrics, reaching a maximum total shielding effectiveness (SE_T) of 47 dB. Besides, the composite fabric achieves a high Joule heating temperature to 105 ℃ at 3 V within 10 s due to its efficient electric-thermal property. This work paves a cost-effective way to realize scale-up manufacturing of versatile EM protection textiles to be applied in daily, military and aerospace fields.

Wound injuries are prevalent, and inappropriate dressings can heighten the risk of bacterial infections and extend the duration of recovery. Conventional wound dressings lack adaptability to the skin, and provide insufficient anti-leakage properties, failing to offer effective physical protection. Films composed of nano- or micro-fibers, due to their suitable softness and excellent deformation capabilities, are apt for wound repair. While electrospinning is employed to produce fibrous wound dressings, its complex procedures and the use of high voltage electric fields can impair the activity of bioactive molecules. In this study, we employed solution blow spinning to produce in-situ hybrids of hydrogenated styrene–butadiene–styrene (SEBS) block copolymer with Ag or TiO₂ nanoparticles for wound dressings. The SEBS polymer forms a closely fitting fibrous membrane on the skin surface via rapid solvent evaporation driven by high-speed airflow. This fibrous membrane demonstrates optimal hydrophobicity, breathability, ductility, and flexibility, aligning well with human skin, to ensure effective physical protection. Upon incorporation of Ag nanoparticles, the fibrous membrane displays robust antibacterial effects against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). Evaluations of wound healing in MRSA-infected wounds, when compared to commercial Tegaderm™ films, show that the SEBS-based fibrous membranes effectively reduce infection, expedite wound closure, enhance collagen deposition, suppress the expression of inflammation-related cytokines and elevate the expression of angiogenesis-related cytokines, thus significantly promoting infected wounds.

A solution blow spinning fibrous membrane was developed for the fabrication of in-situ wound dressings with high flexibility, ease of peeling off, waterproof nature, and prevention of blood penetration.

Piezoresistive pressure sensors have received considerable attention because of their simple structure, high sensitivity and low cost. Graphene, which is known for its outstanding mechanical and electrical properties, has shown great application potential as a sensor material. However, its durability and performance consistency in practical applications still require enhancement. In this study, magnetic graphene fibers (MGFs) are prepared via wet spinning, using graphene oxide (GO), doped with Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The resulting MGFs exhibit a high tensile strength of 58.6 MPa, a strain of 5.3% and an electrical conductivity of 1.7 × 10⁴ S/m. These MGFs are utilised to construct a multilayer fabric for fabrication of flexible pressure sensors. The confinement within the spinning channel facilitates an ordered arrangement of GO sheets, resulting in MGFs with superior electrical and mechanical properties. The issuing MGFs pressure sensors demonstrate a wide detection range (0–120 kPa), high sensitivity (0.233 kPa⁻¹, 0–40 kPa) and rapid response/recovery times (121 ms/158 ms). In addition, it exhibits a remarkable durability, maintaining performance over 1300 cycles, during continuous operation, with negligible degradation. This sensor shows excellent capability in monitoring human physiological activities, indicating its substantial application potential in wearable devices.

Precious metal-free electrocatalysts often require significantly more loadings to achieve similar performance as Pt does in fuel cells and metal air batteries. The high loadings cause substantial mass transportation resistance. To address this challenge, we synthesized ordered mesoporous carbon nanofiber electrocatalyst that enables unimpeded mass transfer at mesoscale. The synthesis was based on electrospinning of supramolecular micelles, which were stretched under hydrodynamic forces and self-assembled as in oriented and ordered form. Ordered mesoporous carbon nanofibers (OMCNFs) were obtained after removing the micelle template. The aligned mesopores over electrode scale strongly accelerate diffusion kinetics. The OH⁻ ion diffusion coefficient of OMCNF is 26 times larger than that of the nanofiber with non-ordered pores (NMCNF) and 206 times larger than that of Pt/C. As a result, the electrocatalytic performance of OMCNF was maintained at increased catalyst loadings, while performance deterioration was observed in NMCNF and Pt/C. The assembled zinc-air batteries using aqueous electrolyte and solid-state electrolyte delivered high power density and nice cycling performance.

Water and energy scarcity present significant global challenges in arid and remote regions, therefore, it is imperative to develop a sustainable approach that harnesses atmospheric moisture and sunlight to generate both water and energy. A portable system was presented, which directly harvests water from atmospheric moisture and generates energy using cellulose aerogels–high-entropy perovskite La(Cr_0.2Mn_0.2Fe_0.2Co_0.2Ni_0.2)O₃–lithium chloride (CA–LB5O3–LiCl). The system captures water from moist air during the night and facilitates solar-driven water evaporation and electrocatalytic water splitting during the day. The CA integrated with LiCl achieves efficient moisture absorption even in arid conditions due to its combined hydrophilic structure and entrapped water. The high-entropy perovskite LB5O3 promotes the lattice oxygen mechanism by weakening the metal–oxygen bond, resulting in an overpotential of 290 mV at 10 mA·cm⁻². Furthermore, its excellent solar absorption and photothermal conversion enhance water uptake to 1.01 g·g⁻¹ at 60% relative humidity (RH) as well as increase water evaporation rates to 2.1 kg·h⁻¹·m^–2. This process simultaneously generates O₂ and H₂ from moist airflow, providing both clean water and green fuel. This flexible and sustainable system offers a new pathway for producing water and energy in resource-scarce environments with potential applications in arid and remote regions.

Conformable and breathable textile structures are ideal for flexible wearable pressure sensors, yet challenges remain in scalable fabrication, easy integration, and programmability. This study presents a cost-effective and customizable method to create fully textile-based pressure sensors using machine embroidery, enabling seamless integration into smart wearable systems. Two sensing configurations were developed: a single-layer satin block embroidered with conductive yarn, which exhibited high piezoresistivity, fast response (35 ms), quick recovery (16 ms), and robust durability over 5000 press-and-release cycles, proven effective for monitoring activities such as plantar pressure and muscle contraction, and making it suitable for personalized health and fitness applications. The second configuration, a double-layer embroidery sensor with a conductive path and two parallel spacers anchored beneath a satin block, allows for array integration with minimal wiring, demonstrated by a 3 × 3 sensing array that, with the help of a convolutional neural network (CNN) machine learning model, accurately recognized handwritten numbers (0–9) with a 98.5% accuracy, showing its potential for user authentication and secure passcode entry. These findings underscore the potential of machine embroidery for developing scalable, integrated, and high-performance intelligent textile systems, paving the way for wearable technologies that are customizable, comfortable, and aesthetically appealing for a wide range of applications.

Chronic hypoxia affects stem cell function during tissue repair. Thus far, the hypoxia-associated impact on periosteal stem cells (PSCs), the main contributor to bone repair, remains unknown, and a tailored oxygen modulation strategy for optimizing PSC function is lacking. Here, PSCs exhibit time-dependent proliferation and survival upon hypoxic exposure and a critical 48-h time-point is identified at which hypoxia transitions from beneficial to detrimental. Then, a photothermal-sensitive coaxial fiber-reinforced membrane containing oxygen and pravastatin is constructed to function as an intelligent oxygen supply system. Leveraging near-infrared light as an ON/OFF switch, the system noninvasively scales up oxygen release beginning 48 h post-implantation, counteracting prolonged hypoxia and mitigating its adverse effects on PSCs. The sustained release of pravastatin from the membrane accelerates early neovascularization both directly through its pro-angiogenic effect and indirectly by stimulating vascular endothelial growth factor secretion from PSCs, ensuring a continuous oxygen supply after exogenous oxygen exhaustion. Notably, pravastatin steers PSCs toward robust osteogenic differentiation and provides multifunctional bioactive cues for advanced bone regeneration in vivo. This time-scheduled approach to modulate oxygen supply noninvasively could be applicable beyond bone regeneration for hypoxia-related diseases and multi-tissue repair.

Passive radiative thermal management holds substantial potential for enhancing energy efficiency and sustainability. However, few research efforts have addressed the integration of mechanical robustness and durability with the distribution and composition of photonic structures within materials. Silk fibers, known for their distinctive hierarchical morphological structure, offer a solution to these challenges by providing exceptional optical and mechanical properties. Inspired by this, we developed a silk-like tough metafiber (PMABF) that incorporated multiple scatterers through a multi-scale structural construction of nanofiber aggregates and molecular interface engineering. We show that fabrics woven with PMABF can provide high mid-infrared (MIR) emissivity (98.6%) within the atmospheric window and 86.7% reflectivity in the solar spectrum, attributed to its ellipsoidal photonic structure featuring by surface micro-/nano-particles and numerous internal voids. Through mature and scalable industrial manufacturing routes, our metafibers show excellent mechanical strength, hydrophobicity and thermal stability while maintaining effective passive radiative cooling. Practical application tests demonstrated that molecules introduced during the heterogeneous composite process significantly enhanced the metafiber’s tensile strength (125%) and compressive stress (261.5%) by forming junction welds among the nanofiber backbones to efficiently distribute the external forces. Furthermore, the superior thermal stability and flexibility of PMABF open abundant opportunities for diverse applications with demanding thermal management requirements, such as thermal protection and multi-scenario thermal camouflage.

Biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) melt-blown nonwovens (MN) are regarded as the promising alternatives for petroleum-based air filtration mediums. However, the filtration performances of most PLA MN were greatly relied on their electrostatic effects which would suffer from inevitable attenuation caused by environment conditions during long-term storage. Herein, the innovative combination of breath-figure (BF) and melt-blowing technologies was proposed to prepare the hierarchically structured PLA MN-bearing BF net pattern (PMBP) for enhanced air filtration. Initially, melt-blowing technology was employed to conduct large-scale preparation of PLA MN with a low-pressure drop of 25.7 Pa but an unsatisfactory PM_2.5 (aerodynamic diameter below 2.5 μm) filtration efficiency of 59.5%. At the optimized BF processing conditions involving polymer concentration of 0.5 wt% in hexafluoroisopropanol and relative humidity of 50%, the resultant BF net pattern exhibited uniformly microporous structure with the average pore size low to 1.02 μm. The integration of large-pore PLA MN and small-pore net pattern endowed PMBP with hierarchical structures, which induced PMBP displaying excellent filtration performances (filtration efficiency of 95.8% and pressure drop of 39.3 Pa), and eliminating over 99% of PM_2.5 particles within 3 min in the actual smoke test, even without the benefit of static charges. The filtration performances of the PMBP remained stable in high-humidity environments and during long-term storage. Furthermore, the PMBP also exhibited exceptional self-cleaning properties. Overall, this work opens up a promising approach to develop fully bio-based and high-performance filtration materials with hierarchical structures.

Liquid metal (LM) dielectric elastomers with high flexibility and excellent dielectric properties are ideal for flexible capacitive pressure sensors. However, the development of LM dielectric elastomers is hindered by the challenge of unavoidable percolation at high LM fill ratios. Inhomogeneous distribution is an effective strategy to manipulate the percolation threshold. Herein, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) fiber mats featuring a unique rapeseed-shaped structure were designed for high LM content filling (up to 90 vol%) and prepared with the aid of an electrospinning technique, in which LM was locally concentrated in the TPU fibers of the composite mats to form isolated clusters, leading to an incredible improvement in the percolation threshold surpassing our calculated theoretical prediction (>90 vol% vs. 83 vol%). The LM/TPU-Fiber mats are proven to be recyclable, temperature-insensitive, and waterproof, making them suitable for multiple usage environments. A flexible capacitive sensor prepared with LM/TPU-Fiber mats, capable of exceptional relative capacitance change (Max. ΔC/C₀ = 6.32), an impressive pressure range of 0–550 kPa with a sensitivity of 55 MPa⁻¹, and high cyclic stability (>6000 cycles). With these outstanding attributes, the sensor holds great promise for applications in intelligent sorting, pressure distribution monitoring, and human–machine interaction.

Due to the shortage of rational waste management, plastic waste has become increasingly serious, posing a serious threat to the environment and humans. The catalytic oxidation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste has been reported to reduce environmental stress and produce valuable products. However, obtaining valuable chemicals from waste plastics under mild conditions driven by specific reactive oxygen species is a great challenge. Herein, N, P-doped Mo₂C@porous carbon was designed and employed in the peroxymonosulfate-based advanced oxidation reforming of PET hydrolysate. The ethylene glycol (EG) derived from PET fiber was catalytically oxidized to formate via singlet oxygen activation during the peroxymonosulfate-based advanced oxidation process. Compared with Mo₂C, the N, P-doped Mo₂C@porous carbon catalyst with a large specific surface area provides more active sites, which has the characteristic of high catalytic activity. It presents the tetracycline degradation efficiency of ~ 80% under a wide pH range (6.8–10.6) and, further, the formate generation rate of ~ 56.5 mmol g_cat⁻¹ in the advanced oxidation reforming process of EG in 8 h. The detection and quenching experiments on the oxygen active species comprehensively confirmed that singlet oxygen is the key reactive oxygen species during the advanced catalytic oxidation reactions. This work provided a constructive demonstration for designing advanced oxidation catalysts to catalyze the reforming of waste PET fiber plastics into valuable chemicals.

The catalytic reforming of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste and proper treatment of fiber-based microplastics have emerged as critical areas of research and innovation to alleviate environmental stress and generate valuable products. This work sheds light on the efficient Mo₂C@porous C catalyst design via singlet oxygen activation for persulfate-based advanced oxidation reforming of EG from PET fiber waste, providing a potential countermeasure to address plastic waste pollution and achieve carbon neutrality