Evaporative/radiative electrospun membrane for personal cooling

Functional textiles that promote daily comfort and productivity must efficiently release body sweats and transmit radiative heat through sweat evaporation and mid-infrared radiation (MIR) (8–13 µm). However, most of the traditional clothing cannot provide simultaneous sweat evaporation and mid-infrared radiation transmission efficiently, leading to a poor design of personal cooling wearables. Herein, an evaporative/radiative integrated functional fibrous electrospun membrane is meticulously designed and controllably fabricated via facile electrospinning technology for personal cooling management. The developed membrane can be applied as a smart wearable with distinct personal thermal management applications. The promising temperature and humidity responsive vapor transmission of the membrane grants 1.2 times of evaporative cooling than that of traditional cotton. Besides, based on its high mid-infrared radiation transmission (53%) property in the range of 8–13 µm, the as-spun membrane provides extra cooling of 1.5 °C than that of cotton. Moreover, the building energy saving performances demonstrated that 47.1% annual building cooling can be achieved using the developed electrospun membrane. In general, the evaporative/radiative electrospun membrane creates a passive cooling microclimate for the human body, meeting the growing demand of wearable for personal cooling.