Dual-Driven Functional Fabric with High Electrothermal and Photothermal Conversion Efficiency Modified by CuS Nanoparticles

As an ideal substrate for active material integration, fabrics of nanofiber bundles have held great promise due to their outstanding surface area, unique mechanical flexibility, and textile structure. Herein, a polyethylene nanofiber bundle (PNB) fabric was prepared via melt blending extrusion followed by chemical deposition of a copper sulfide (CuS) active layer. Benefiting from the high conductivity and the outstanding light absorption characteristics of CuS, CuS/PNB fabrics exhibited excellent photo and electric dual-driven energy conversion performance. Specifically, the CuS/PNB fabrics showed the highest electrical conductivity (277 S m–1), exceptional Joule heating (up to 85.7 °C at a voltage of 0.8 V), a low working voltage (0.2–0.8 V), and long-term stability. Furthermore, the photo-absorption efficiency and surface temperature reached 94.3% and 91.2 °C under the irradiation of 1 sun, respectively. Meanwhile, the CuS/PNB fabrics exhibited a high specific evaporation rate of up to 1.81 kg m–2 h–1, as well as an energy conversion efficiency of 95.1% under one solar irradiation. We believe that such a functional fabric offers a strategy for energy harvesting and conversion fields and displays promising applications in warmth-keeping and solar-driven water evaporation in the future.