A Thermoregulatory Flexible Phase Change Nonwoven for All-Season High-Efficiency Wearable Thermal Management

Abstract

AbstractPhase change materials have a key role for wearable thermal management, but suffer from poor water vapor permeability, low enthalpy value and weak shape stability caused by liquid phase leakage and intrinsic rigidity of solid–liquid phase change materials. Herein, we report for the first time a versatile strategy for designed assembly of high-enthalpy flexible phase change nonwovens (GB-PCN) by wet-spinning hybrid graphene-boron nitride (GB) fiber and subsequent impregnating paraffins (e.g., eicosane, octadecane). As a result, our GB-PCN exhibited an unprecedented enthalpy value of 206.0 J g−1, excellent thermal reliability and anti-leakage capacity, superb thermal cycling ability of 97.6% after 1000 cycles, and ultrahigh water vapor permeability (close to the cotton), outperforming the reported PCM films and fibers to date. Notably, the wearable thermal management systems based on GB-PCN for both clothing and face mask were demonstrated, which can maintain the human body at a comfortable temperature range for a significantly long time. Therefore, our results demonstrate huge potential of GB-PCN for human-wearable passive thermal management in real scenarios.