Integration of efficient photothermal and flexible solid-solid PCM for personal thermoregulation in cold environments

Personal thermal management (PTM) technology demonstrates extensive development prospects in the domains of energy, environment, and medicine. Nevertheless, it still suffers from drawbacks such as high costs and restricted environmental adaptability. The integration of phase change materials (PCMs) and photothermal conversion technologies holds the potential to address these issues. In this study, an efficient photothermal and flexible solid-solid phase change composite was successfully fabricated. This composite exhibits excellent processing and molding performance, and it remains free of liquid leakage at elevated temperatures. It exhibits high thermal conductivity (2.9 W m^-1 K^-1) and a high phase transition enthalpy (184 kJ/kg), and the absorptivity exceeds 90%. The phase change composite is capable of performing efficient photothermal phase change heat storage in extreme cold environments (such as at Zhongshan Station in Antarctica) and maintaining a temperature above 16°C for 8 h, thereby demonstrating significant application potential in wearable thermal management garments for personal thermoregulation.