Hierarchically core-shell nanofiber textiles for personal cooling in hot and humid conditions

Personal thermal management textiles can regulate the heat exchange between the human body and the surrounding environment. Nonetheless, the development of textiles that exhibit exceptional cooling properties in both high humidity, high temperature, and air-permeability conditions remains a formidable task. Here, we report an air-permeable phase-change fluorinated polyurethane-silicon nitride membrane (PFSM) with hierarchically micro-/nano-structure consisting of polyethylene glycol core and polyurethane/Si3N4 shell fabricated by coaxial electrostatic spinning. PFSM textile exhibits high solar reflectance (91%), high infrared emissivity (92%), high thermal conductivity (4.504 W m-1 K-1) and enhanced enthalpy (43.3 J/g), integrating radiative cooling, phase change, and heat conduction into one wearable textile. Compared with conventional cotton, PFSM textile realizes a daytime temperature drop of 10.7 degrees C for human skin in hot and humid conditions with ambient temperature of 28.2 degrees C and humidity over 50%. Moreover, PFSM textile shows air-permeability, good biocompatibility, excellent thermally induced shape memory effects, helping for its practical application for personal thermal management in various scenarios. This work provides a feasible strategy to realize on-skin air-permeable cooling under high humidity and high temperature environment, paving the way for the utilization of personal thermal management textile.