Ultralight and superelastic fibrous sponges with effective heat preservation and photo-thermal conversion for personal cold protection

Advanced warming materials integrating functions of reducing heat loss and providing extra heat for the body have attracted much attention. In this work, an ultralight and superelastic fibrous sponge serving as novel warmth retention materials was obtained by assembling the fibers contained zirconium carbide nanoparticles (ZrC NPs) into three-dimension (3D) configuration and creating the semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (semi-IPNs) within fibers via humidity-induced electrospinning and the thermal crosslinking technology. The resulting fibrous sponge (PCFS-12) exhibits high heat preservation ability (~25.2 mW m−1 K−1) and effective photo-thermal conversion performance that could improve the temperature of PCFS-12 to 70.3 °C under the sunlight irradiation. Moreover, the PCFS-12 showed a low density of 2.8 mg cm−3, low-temperature superelasticity with minor plastic deformation after 1000 compression, and good hydrophobic property (WCA = 132°). This work provides a novel approach to develop high-performance warmth retention materials for personal cold protection.