Green Constructing an Intelligent Temperature-Regulating Fabric with Multiple Heat-Transfer Capabilities

Textiles with heat management function have good effects on improving human comfort during sport. However, it is still a great challenge to endow textiles with responsiveness to external environmental changes. Herein, we developed an intelligent temperature-regulating cotton textile with multiple heat transfer capability by a two-step method. Firstly, hydroxylated boron nitride (BN-OH) nanosheet dispersion liquid was prepared using a two-step ultrasonic-alkali treatment. Subsequently, enzymatic graft polymerization of N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM) onto cotton fibers were performed using horseradish peroxidase (HRP). The composite cotton fabric, containing entrapped BN-OH exhibits unique temperature-regulating ability, and the thermal diffusivities in vertical and parallel directions reach 1.2 and 1.7 times of the untreated, respectively. This can be attributed to the temperature responsiveness of poly-NIPAM (PNIPAM) and the increase in the packing density of the thermal conductive nanosheets at high temperatures. Meanwhile, the PNIPAM covering the fiber surfaces slowly expands at low temperatures, accordingly minishes the gap sizes between fabric yarns and endows the fabric with improved heat preservation effects. The present work provides a facile and green strategy for developing the intelligent textiles with ambient temperature self-response ability.