Ultrathin aerogel-structured micro/nanofiber metafabric via dual air-gelation synthesis for self-sustainable heating

Abstract

Abstract Incorporating passive heating structures into personal thermal management technologies could effectively mitigate the escalating energy crisis. However, current passive heating materials struggle to balance thickness and insulating capability, resulting in compromised comfort, space efficiency, and limited thermoregulatory performance. Here, a dual air-gelation strategy, is developed to directly synthesize ultrathin and self-sustainable heating metafabric with 3D dual-network structure during electrospinning. Controlling the interactions among polymer, solvent, and water enables the microphase separation of charged jets, while adjusting the distribution of carbon black nanoparticles within charged fluids to form fibrous networks composed of interlaced aerogel micro/nanofibers with heat storage capabilities. With a low thickness of 0.18 mm, the integrated metafabric exhibits exceptional thermal insulation performance (15.8 mW m−1K−1), superhydrophobicity, enhanced mechanical properties, and high breathability while maintaining self-sustainable radiative heating ability (long-lasting warming of 8.8 °C). This strategy provides rich possibilities to develop advanced fibrous materials for smart textiles and thermal management.