Design, Preparation and Properties of Bio-inspired Hierarchical Structure Yarns with Enhanced Thermal Insulation and Water Transfer Ability

Abstract

Encouraged by the porous and stable structure of cold-resist animals’ hair or feather, bio-inspired hierarchical structure yarns combining polyacrylonitrile(PAN) nanofibers and polypropylene(PP) hollow microfibers have been developed by a modified conjugate electrospinning technology. Physical cross-linking has been built to increase fibers adhesion and construct interlayer support for nanofibrous assembly. The nanofibers and hollow microfibers construct a stable porous structure with porosity of 62%, providing excellent thermal insulating ability[temperature difference(|ΔT|) between skin and yarn surface is 4.9 °C] as well as good mechanical property. More interestingly, the water transfer ability (infiltrate the yarn in 10 s) of synthetic fibers has been improved greatly by the combination of thin diameter nanofibers to the yarn. It is believed that the research lays the foundation for bio-inspired engineering technology in the manufacture of thermal comfort.

Keywords

Bio-inspired material / Hierarchical structure yarn / Thermal insulation / Water transfer ability

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