Radiative Cooling Electrostatic Spinning Fabric with Environmental Adaptability and Robustness

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Textile Engineering

Background:

• Radiative cooling textiles offer sustainable personal thermal management (PTM) by emitting body heat to space and reflecting sunlight.
• Existing PTM fabrics lack environmental adaptability and are often tested in single-application environments.
• There is a need for robust, adaptable cooling textiles suitable for daily wear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an environmentally adaptive fabric (EAF) for efficient radiative cooling.
• To investigate the fabric's performance under various environmental conditions and treatments.
• To demonstrate the potential of EAF for next-generation smart thermal management textiles.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of EAF using polyformaldehyde (POM) and hollow SiO2 based on Mie scattering theory and micronanostructure design.
• Characterization of optical properties, including selective emission in the atmospheric window (8-13 μm), transmission (2.5-25 μm), and sunlight reflection (0.3-2.5 μm).
• Testing of optical property durability under acid, alkaline, and UV treatments.

Main Results:

• The EAF exhibits high optical selectivity, enabling efficient radiative cooling.
• The fabric maintains outstanding optical properties after exposure to harsh environmental treatments (acid, alkaline, UV).
• Demonstrated significant cooling effect (1.5-12.2 °C lower than control fabrics) in both outdoor and indoor settings.

Conclusions:

• The developed EAF shows excellent environmental adaptability and robustness, suitable for daily garment use.
• This work presents a new pathway for designing advanced, sustainable smart thermal management textiles.
• The EAF technology holds promise for broader applications in sustainable thermal management solutions.