A Layered Gradient Metafabric Integrating Radiative Cooling and Directional Moisture Transport for Personal Thermal Management

Abstract

In recent years, wearable personal thermal management textiles for hot environments have attracted widespread attention because of their potential for thermal comfort regulation and energy savings. However, most existing studies primarily focus on a single radiative cooling function and pay insufficient attention to the synergistic regulation of sweat transport and evaporative heat dissipation, thereby making it difficult to simultaneously satisfy the comprehensive thermo-moisture comfort requirements of the human body. To address this issue, a Metafabric was constructed in this study via layered electrospinning, achieving synergistic regulation of optical properties, wettability, and pore structure for efficient personal thermo-moisture management. Owing to its unique optical structure and the incorporation of functional particles, the cooling layer of Metafabric exhibited an average solar reflectance of 94.65% and a mid-infrared emissivity of 87.25%. These characteristics effectively suppressed solar heat gain and enhanced radiative heat dissipation. Meanwhile, it achieved an evaporation rate of 0.34 g h–1, demonstrating favorable sweat diffusion and evaporation capability. Outdoor tests showed that under an average solar irradiance of approximately 850 W m–2, Metafabric achieved an average subambient cooling of about 17 °C, with a maximum temperature difference of 18.77 °C. In summary, through the synergistic effect of radiative cooling and evaporative cooling, Metafabric enables sustained and effective temperature regulation under complex thermal environments, providing a feasible structural strategy for the design of low-energy personal thermal management textiles.