Integration of prolonged phase-change thermal storage material and radiative cooling textile for personal thermal management

Efficient passive thermal regulation clothing is of great importance for personal thermal comfort in extremely hot environments. Phase-change textiles have been made for personal thermal regulation, however, achieving prolonged thermal comfort remains challenging due to their limited latent thermal storage duration. Here, a bilayer polyvinyl butyral (PVB) composite textile, integrating prolonged phase-change thermal storage and radiative cooling, is fabricated for personal thermal regulation. The PVB composite textile has a high reflectivity of 90.1 % in the solar wavelength range and a high emissivity of 95.7 % in the atmospheric window. More importantly, encapsulating 70 wt% of phase change microcapsules (PCMC) into the PVB membrane (denoted by PVB-PCMC70) gives a total enthalpy of fusion 124.3 J g−1, which compensates for the deficiency in radiative cooling power during the day. This results in a maximum additional temperature reduction of 10.4 °C compared with textile without the PCMC. Furthermore, the PVB composite textile demonstrates a capacity for effectively mitigating abrupt temperature fluctuations, ensuring sustained thermal comfort throughout the daytime. Moreover, the PVB composite textile shows practical applicability, including washability, flexibility, thermostability, moisture permeability and breathability.