Metalized polyamide heterostructure as a moisture-responsive actuator for multimodal adaptive personal heat management.

Li, Xiuqiang; Ma, Boran; Dai, Jingyuan; Sui, Chenxi; Pande, Divya; Smith, David R; Brinson, L Catherine; Hsu, Po-Chun · Sci Adv · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Personal thermal management textile/wearable is an effective strategy to expand the indoor temperature setpoint range to reduce a building’s energy consumption. Usually, textiles/wearables that were engineered for controlling conduction, convection, radiation, or sweat evaporation have been developed separately. Here, we demonstrate a multimodal adaptive wearable with moisture-responsive flaps composed of a nylon/metal heterostructure, which can simultaneously regulate convection, sweat evaporation, and mid-infrared emission to accomplish large and rapid heat transfer tuning in response to human perspiration vapor. We show that the metal layer not only plays a crucial role in low-emissivity radiative heating but also enhances the bimorph actuation performance. The multimodal adaptive mechanism expands the thermal comfort zone by 30.7 and 20.7% more than traditional static textiles and single-modal adaptive wearables without any electricity and energy input, making it a promising design paradigm for personal heat management.