Three-Dimensional Printed Thermal Regulation Textiles

TLDR

Space cooling accounts for a large share of household energy use, and while whole‑building cooling can provide comfort, it is energy‑intensive and costly, making personal cooling technologies a promising alternative for energy and cost savings. The authors aim to demonstrate a personal thermal‑regulated textile that uses thermally conductive, highly aligned boron nitride/poly(vinyl alcohol) composite fibers to enhance textile thermal transport for personal cooling. The composite fibers are fabricated by a fast, scalable three‑dimensional printing process that achieves uniform dispersion and high alignment of BN nanosheets. The resulting a‑BN/PVA textile exhibits 355 MPa strength, efficient heat dispersion, and delivers a 55 % cooling improvement over commercial cotton, offering a wearable solution that can substantially reduce building cooling energy and costs.

Abstract

Space cooling is a predominant part of energy consumption in people's daily life. Although cooling the whole building is an effective way to provide personal comfort in hot weather, it is energy-consuming and high-cost. Personal cooling technology, being able to provide personal thermal comfort by directing local heat to the thermally regulated environment, has been regarded as one of the most promising technologies for cooling energy and cost savings. Here, we demonstrate a personal thermal regulated textile using thermally conductive and highly aligned boron nitride (BN)/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) composite (denoted as a-BN/PVA) fibers to improve the thermal transport properties of textiles for personal cooling. The a-BN/PVA composite fibers are fabricated through a fast and scalable three-dimensional (3D) printing method. Uniform dispersion and high alignment of BN nanosheets (BNNSs) can be achieved during the processing of fiber fabrication, leading to a combination of high mechanical strength (355 MPa) and favorable heat dispersion. Due to the improved thermal transport property imparted by the thermally conductive and highly aligned BNNSs, better cooling effect (55% improvement over the commercial cotton fiber) can be realized in the a-BN/PVA textile. The wearable a-BN/PVA textiles containing the 3D-printed a-BN/PVA fibers offer a promising selection for meeting the personal cooling requirement, which can significantly reduce the energy consumption and cost for cooling the whole building.