Natural Sodium Humate Combination Tanning Builds Personal Thermal Management Leather

Abstract Personal thermal management (PTM) leather can provide a comfortable microenvironment for the human body by using solar energy. However, the existing chrome tanning agent is not only harmful to the environment, but also cannot give leather thermal management properties. In this study, a novel PTM leather is first constructed by using the combined tanning method of sodium humate and aluminum tanning agent, avoiding the using of chrome tanning agent. The shrinkage temperature of leather is 84.2 °C. The tensile strength, tear strength, and thickening rate of leather are 16.6 MPa, 68.9 N mm −1, and 95.6%, respectively. In addition, the solar absorption rate of leather reaches 93.5%. At noon and in the evening, the average temperature difference between the leather and the ambient temperature is 20 and 4.7 °C, respectively. The preparation of leather and the application of PTM leather are realized by one step tanning. The thermoregulatory leather developed in this work is anticipated to realize high‐value utilization of sodium humate, minimize chrome tanning agent consumption, and enable efficient clean energy utilization, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of leather manufacturing.