Construction Strategy for Flexible and Breathable SiO2/Al/NFs/PET Composite Fabrics with Dual Shielding against Microwave and Infrared–Thermal Radiations for Wearable Protective Clothing

Abstract

Microwave and infrared–thermal radiation-compatible shielding fabrics represent an important direction in the development of wearable protective fabrics. Nevertheless, effectively and conveniently integrating compatible shielding functions into fabrics while maintaining breathability and moisture permeability remains a significant challenge. Here, we take hydrophilic PVA-co-PE nanofibrous film-coated PET fabric (NFs/PET) as a flexible substrate and deposit a dielectric/conductive (SiO2/Al) bilayer film via magnetron sputtering. This strategy endows the fabric surface with high electrical conductivity, nanoscale roughness comparable to visible and infrared waves, and a dielectric–metal contact interface possessing localized plasmon resonance and Mie scattering effects. The results demonstrate that the optimized SiO2/Al/NFs/PET composite conductive fabric (referred to as S4-1) possesses favorable X-band electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (50 dB) as well as excellent long-wave infrared (LWIR) shielding or IR stealth performance (IR emissivity of 0.60). Notably, the S4-1 fabric has a cooling effect of about 12.4 °C for a heat source (80 °C) and an insulating effect of about 17.2 °C for a cold source (−20 °C), showing excellent shielding capability for heat conduction and heat radiations. Moreover, the moisture permeability of the S4-1 fabric is about 300 g/(m2·h), which is better than the requirement concerning moisture permeability for wearable fabrics (≥2500–5000 g/(m2·24 h)), indicating excellent heat and moisture comfort. In short, our fabrics have lightweight, thin, moisture-permeable and excellent shielding performance, which provides novel ideas for the development of wearable multi-band shielding fabrics applied to complex electromagnetic environments.