Highly flexible, efficient, and wearable infrared radiation heating carbon fabric

Abstract

A highly flexible, efficient, and wearable infrared radiation heating carbon fabric (CF) was fabricated with textile forming technique. Infrared nanoparticles were introduced into the CF through interfacial adhesion enabled by dopamine. The heating CF exhibited fast electrothermal response and favorable heat preservation due to an additional electrical field caused by permanent spontaneous polarization of both CF matrix and infrared nanoparticles. The temperature of heating fabric can be rapidly raised up from room temperature to around 60 °C in 10 min under a voltage of 10 V. This shape adaptive heating fabric is very versatile for a wide range of real applications. • A flexible and efficient infrared radiation heating carbon fabric was constructed. • Infrared nanoparticles were introduced into carbon fabric by interfacial adhesion. • Heating fabric showed fast electrothermal response and favorable heat preservation. • This shape adaptive heating fabric is very versatile for widespread real applications. The infrared radiation heating textiles have attracted increasing attention aiming to address the warmth retention issue in cold weather. It still remains challenging to develop high-efficiency heating products with fast heating rate and stable heat generation. Here, a highly flexible, efficient, and wearable infrared radiation heating carbon fabric (CF) was rationally constructed using textile forming technique. Inspired by the biomimetic adhesion, the carbon fabric was chemically modified by dopamine to improve the interfacial activity on the fiber surface. Infrared radiation materials including tourmaline, ZrO 2 , and medical stone nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully introduced into the carbon fabric through interfacial adhesion. The permanent spontaneous polarization of both CF matrix and infrared radiation NPs can induce an enhanced current in the heater by creating an additional electrical field, benefiting to produce a fast electrothermal response and favorable heat preservation. It was found that 30% tourmaline@PDA@CF, 9% ZrO 2 @PDA@CF, and 15% medical stone@PDA@CF exhibited excellent heat generation performance among different samples with different ingredients. The temperature can be rapidly raised up from room temperature to 58.3 °C, 60 °C, 59.5 °C respectively for these three samples in 10 min under a voltage of 10 V. More importantly, the composite CF is highly shape adaptive and can be fully integrated into a neck guard or industrial carpet for real application. It is expected that this infrared radiation heating CF can be widely applied in the fields of personal warmth, physical therapy, biomedical treatment, and wearable flexible electronics.