Enzymatic construction of a temperature-regulating fabric with multiple heat-transfer capabilities

Textiles with heat management have good effects on improving comfort during sports. However, it is still a great challenge to endow textiles with responsiveness to external environmental changes. Herein, we developed a temperature-regulating cotton textile with multiple heat transfer capabilities by a two-step method. Firstly, hydroxylated boron nitride (BN-OH) nanosheet dispersion liquid was prepared using the ultrasonic-alkali treatment. Subsequently, enzymatic graft polymerization of N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM) onto cotton fibers was performed using horseradish peroxidase. The composite cotton fabric, containing entrapped BN-OH, exhibits unique temperature-regulating ability. The thermal diffusivities in lateral and in-plane directions reach 1.3 and 1.7 times of the untreated, respectively. This can be attributed to the temperature responsiveness of poly-NIPAM (PNIPAM) and the increase in the packing density of the thermally conductive nanosheets at high temperatures. Meanwhile, the PNIPAM covering the fiber surfaces expands at low temperatures, accordingly minishes the gap sizes between fabric yarns and endows the fabric with improved heat preservation effects. The present work provides an enzyme-mediated strategy for developing textiles with ambient temperature self-response ability.Graphical abstract