Controllable large-scale processing of temperature regulating sheath-core fibers with high-enthalpy for thermal management

Temperature regulating fibers (TRFs) with high enthalpy and high form stability are the key factors for thermal management. However, the enthalpies of most TRFs are not high, and the preparation methods are still at the laboratory scale. It remains a great challenge to use industrial spinning equipment to achieve continuous processing of TRFs with excellent thermal and mechanical properties. Here, polyamide 6 (PA6) based TRFs with a sheath-core structure were prepared by bicomponent melt-spinning. The sheath-core TRF (TRFsc) are composed of PA6 as sheath and functional PA6 as core, which are filled with the shape stable phase change materials (ssPCM), dendritic silica@polyethylene glycol (SiO2@PEG). With the aid of the sheath structure, the filling content of SiO2@PEG can reach 30 ​%, so that the enthalpy of the TRFs can be as high as 21.3 ​J/g. The ultra-high enthalpy guarantees the temperature regulation ability during the alternating process of cooling and heating. In hot environment, the temperature regulation time is 6.59 ​min, and the temperature difference is 12.93 ​°C. In addition, the mechanical strength of the prepared TRFsc reaches 2.26 cN/dtex, which can fully meet its application in the field of thermal management textiles and devices to manage the temperature regulation of the human body or precision equipment, etc.