Thermo-Conductive, Air-Permeable, and Hydrophobic Sulfonated Poly(Styrene-Ethylene/Butylene-Styrene)/Boron Nitride Nanosheet Nanofiber Membranes for Wearables via One-Step Electrospinning

Abstract

Polymer materials based on highly thermal conductive fillers have emerged as an effective way to achieve wearable thermal management such as personal cooling, thermal management of wearable devices, and so on. Highly thermal conductive fillers, such as boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs), integrated with fibrous materials are a promising way to construct highly thermal conductive polymer materials. However, many fabrication processes are complex and time consuming. Also, a large amount of BNNSs was loaded into the resultant materials to enhance thermal conductivity. Here, we first prepared hydrophobics sulfonated poly(styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene) (S-SEBS)/BNNS nanofiber membranes with high thermal conductivity and air permeability for efficient thermal management via facile one-step electrospinning. This strategy made BNNSs uniformly disperse along the nanofibers. Meanwhile, the porous structure remained, enhancing thermal conductivity without sacrificing air permeability. Therefore, the resultant air-permeable textiles demonstrated outstanding thermal management performance with ultrahigh in-plane thermal conductivity of 16.37 W·m–1·K–1 and out-plane thermal conductivity of 0.1037 W·m–1·K–1 at BNNS loading of 15 wt % as well as a hydrophobic surface which could resist stain adhesion, indicating promising utility for wearable thermal management applications.