Asymmetrical Emissivity and Wettability in Stitching Treble Weave Metafabric for Synchronous Personal Thermal-Moisture Management

Small. 2023 Jul;19(29):e2300297. doi: 10.1002/smll.202300297. Epub 2023 Apr 7.

Abstract

Developing textiles with passive thermal management is an effective strategy to maintain the human body healthy as well as decrease energy consumption. Personal thermal management (PTM) textiles with engineered constituent element and fabric structure have been developed, however the comfortability and robustness of these textiles remains a challenge due to the complexity of passive thermal-moisture management. Here a metafabric with asymmetrical stitching treble weave based on woven structure design and yarn functionalization is developed, in which the thermal radiation regulation and moisture-wicking can be achieved simultaneously throughout the dual-mode metafabric due to its optically regulated property, multi-branched through-porous structure and surface wetting difference. With simply flipping, the metafabric enables high solar reflectivity (87.6%) and IR emissivity (94%) in the cooling mode, and a low IR emissivity of 41.3% in the heating mode. When overheating and sweating, the cooling capacity reaches to ≈9 °C owing to the synergistic effect of radiation and evaporation. Moreover, the tensile strengths of the metafabric are 46.18 MPa (warp direction) and 37.59 MPa (weft direction), respectively. This work provides a facile strategy to fabricate multi-functional integrated metafabrics with much flexibility and thus has great potential for thermal management applications and sustainable energy.

Keywords: asymmetry; moisture-wicking; radiative cooling; radiative heating; stitching treble weave metafabric.