A large-area versatile textile for radiative warming and biomechanical energy harvesting

Abstract

Both thermal management and electricity generation are becoming two basic functions for next-generation clothing integrated with wearable electronics. However, such versatile textiles with a simple design and great comfort have been rarely reported. Here, we propose a tri-layer textile that not only realizes solar and passive radiative warming but also harvests biomechanical energy to generate electricity. The textile is achieved by assembling photothermal nanoparticles on an infrared-reflective and conductive fabric with a tribo-negative polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanofiber membrane on the backside. The textile offers both a minimal thermal emissivity (down to 11.0%) and a maximum solar absorptivity (up to 83.7%), effectively suppressing radiation heat loss and boosting the harvested solar-thermal energy. Wearing such a textile enables a 3 °C drop of the indoor heating setpoint compared to a cotton textile, saving 25.2–100% of building energy consumption in ten cities worldwide. Moreover, the textile can serve as a single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator. Remarkably high outputs (150–352 V, 7.5–27.8 μA) can be attained upon hand touching with different forces (14.7–44.0 N) and frequencies (0.9–3.9 Hz), which can power 41 LEDs. This textile opens a promising direction on how to develop a multifunctional energy-saving and electricity-generation textile while keeping thermal comfort for wearers.