TY - JOUR
T1 - Nature-inspired moisture management fabric for unidirectional liquid transport and surface repellence and resistance
AU - Zou, Chao
AU - Lao, Lihong
AU - Chen, Qing
AU - Fan, Jintu
AU - Shou, Dahua
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Shou acknowledges the support from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (Project No.: PolyU 252029/19E ), the Innovation and Technology Fund of Hong Kong (Project No.: ITS/093/19 ), the PolyU-Industry Collaborative Research Project (Project No.: ZDCH), and the PolyU GRF Project (Project No.: 1-BE1F).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/10/1
Y1 - 2021/10/1
N2 - Humans sweat to cool down and dissipate heat in indoor and outdoor environments. The evaporation of liquid sweat absorbs body heat and reduces skin temperature. However, when the wearer sweats a lot or is fully wet by external liquids such as rain, even the best moisture management fabrics can be soaked and saturated, becoming unbreathable, heavy, and clingy, and imposing significant reduction in wearer's comfort and performance. Herein, inspired by liquid collection and release processes on the desert beetle's skin, we develop an innovative moisture management fabric, transferring excessive sweat from the skin side to the outer surface of the fabric and dissipating it in terms of droplets, while blocking and repelling the external liquids. The completely unidirectional liquid transport is achieved in the developed nature-inspired fabric, which is treated with global hydrophobicity and discrete localized wettability gradient by a sustainable plasma treatment method. Moreover, the proposed fabric shows improved thermal comfort with high breathability, reduced clinginess, and dry skin surface. Specifically, a highly directional water transport capability of 1647.9% is obtained using a Moisture Management Tester, while the water resistance from the external side is equivalent to a water column of 15 mm height. The water flow rate from the inner skin side to the environment is equal to 91.44 g/min∙m2, which is much higher than that of the high sweating rate of an adult (i.e., 15 g/min∙m2). Regulation of liquid movement in the proposed fabric will attract wide potential applications, including sportswear, worker uniform, casualwear, protective clothing, firefighter apparel, and military clothing. Maintaining moisture and thermal comfort while adapting to the expanded ambient temperature range of the air-conditioning system will also be desirable in building energy conservation.
AB - Humans sweat to cool down and dissipate heat in indoor and outdoor environments. The evaporation of liquid sweat absorbs body heat and reduces skin temperature. However, when the wearer sweats a lot or is fully wet by external liquids such as rain, even the best moisture management fabrics can be soaked and saturated, becoming unbreathable, heavy, and clingy, and imposing significant reduction in wearer's comfort and performance. Herein, inspired by liquid collection and release processes on the desert beetle's skin, we develop an innovative moisture management fabric, transferring excessive sweat from the skin side to the outer surface of the fabric and dissipating it in terms of droplets, while blocking and repelling the external liquids. The completely unidirectional liquid transport is achieved in the developed nature-inspired fabric, which is treated with global hydrophobicity and discrete localized wettability gradient by a sustainable plasma treatment method. Moreover, the proposed fabric shows improved thermal comfort with high breathability, reduced clinginess, and dry skin surface. Specifically, a highly directional water transport capability of 1647.9% is obtained using a Moisture Management Tester, while the water resistance from the external side is equivalent to a water column of 15 mm height. The water flow rate from the inner skin side to the environment is equal to 91.44 g/min∙m2, which is much higher than that of the high sweating rate of an adult (i.e., 15 g/min∙m2). Regulation of liquid movement in the proposed fabric will attract wide potential applications, including sportswear, worker uniform, casualwear, protective clothing, firefighter apparel, and military clothing. Maintaining moisture and thermal comfort while adapting to the expanded ambient temperature range of the air-conditioning system will also be desirable in building energy conservation.
KW - Moisture management fabric
KW - Nature-inspired design
KW - Surface repellence and resistance
KW - Thermal comfort
KW - Unidirectional liquid transport
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108803537&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111203
DO - 10.1016/j.enbuild.2021.111203
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85108803537
SN - 0378-7788
VL - 248
JO - Energy and Buildings
JF - Energy and Buildings
M1 - 111203
ER -