Wax Direct‐Writing of Monolayered Janus Fabrics for Personal Moisture Management

Abstract

AbstractJanus fabrics with moisture and thermal management capacity are beneficial for human body comfort and performance. However, the present fabrication methods for constructing Janus fabrics are usually complicated, toxic, time‐consuming, and lacking durability. Here, a simple and rapid wax direct‐writing method is proposed to regulate the superhydrophilic monolayered fabric with a hydrophobic part. Noting that wax is low‐cost, easily available, and nontoxic. More importantly, wax can readily penetrate to the cotton fabric, and there is a challenge to get rid of it from the fabric under mechanical abrasion, sunlight irradiation, and home laundry. It is suggested that wax direct‐writing can create a durable fabric. The monolayered Janus fabric is able to unidirectionally transport water/sweat from its hydrophobic side to the superhydrophilic one, while blocking it from the reverse direction. Meanwhile, it can generate drying and cooling effects (≈4° cooler than covered with hydrophilic cotton fabric) in hot weather. This work intends to simply and rapidly fabricate the functional Janus fabric with durable moisture managing capacity and may scale up to mass‐production for potential commercialization.