Room-temperature, energy storage textile with multicore-sheath structure obtained via in-situ coaxial electrospinning

Abstract

Smart thermo-regulated textiles are promising to fabricate spacesuit, wearable electronic device, energy saving vehicle, homothermal shell system for rechargeable lithium batteries, and smart furniture and building materials etc. However, phase change temperature and related latent heat value of the state-of-the-art thermo-regulated smart textiles ranges from 35℃ to 65℃ and is lower than 65 J g−1, respectively. It is still a big challenge to obtain smart thermo-regulated textile with a comfortable phase change temperature (e.g. 25 ℃), a latent heat value of up to 80 J g−1, an excellent shape stability at high temperature (e.g. 100 ℃), an acceptable water proof ability, and a fabulous thermal recycle reliability. Herein, we for the first time report a smart thermal regulation textile with novel multicores-sheath nanostructures using the coaxial electrospinning technique accompanying with an in-situ UV irradiation polymerization. The obtained coaxial electrospinning fibers with the multicores-sheath structure own a comfortable phase change point (around 25 ℃), and show a maximum latent heat value of 106.2 J g−1. The latent heat retention of the textiles is higher than 98.3% after the 500-times thermal recycles to illustrate their outstanding energy absorption-release reliability. The produced textiles still exhibit splendid heat preservation and excellent shape stability even if the surrounding temperature has reached 120℃. Water proof ability studies reveal that both latent heat and tensile strength values of the prepared textiles are almost unchanged after soaking in water. The herein preparation method opens up a new avenue to develop smart thermal regulation textiles with a room temperature phase change point, a high latent heat value, a distinctive shape stability at different temperatures, and an outstanding water proof ability.