Development of Leather Fiber/Polyurethane Composite with Antibacterial, Wet Management, and Temperature-Adaptive...

With the increase in the incidence of diabetes, the health care of the feet of diabetic patients becomes particularly important. Herein, leather fiber (LF) was utilized with waterborne polyhexamethylene guanidine-embedded polyurethane (PPU) to prepare network-interpenetrating LF/PPU composites as potential foot care material via a facile "paper-making" pathway. Due to the coating of PPU on LF, the release of chromium in sweat is significantly reduced. The fibrous structure endows LF/PPU with temporary hydrophobicity, air permeability, and moisture absorption and retention. Such wet management capacity can help to maintain a dry environment inside a shoe model. Moreover, the presence of PPU improves the durability of LF/PPU, and the synergistic effect of LF and PPU leads to temperature adaptive flexibility of LF/PPU, thus providing the proper strength to protect feet at low temperatures while offering flexibility in hot environments to facilitate movement. Furthermore, LF/PPU possesses antibacterial and antimildew properties, which are still effective after repeated friction. This study offers a facile and eco-friendly route to develop multifunctional composites for health wear products, especially for foot care.