Bioinspired Stable Single-Layer Janus Fabric with Directional Water/Moisture Transport Property for Integrated Personal Cooling Management

Extensive progress has been achieved regarding Janus fabric for directional water transport due to its excellent and feasible personal cooling management ability, which has great significance for energy conservation, pollution reduction, and human health. However, existing Janus asymmetric multilayer fabrics for directional water transport are still limited by their complicated syntheses and poor stabilities. Inspired by the compositionally graded architecture of leaf cuticles, we propose a single-layer Janus personal cooling management fabric (JPCMF) via a one-step electrospinning method. The JPCMF shows not only great directional bulk water transport ability but also asymmetry moisture (water vapor) transport ability with a high asymmetry factor (1.49), water vapor transmission value (18.5 kg⁻¹ m⁻² D⁻¹), and water evaporation rate (0.735 g h⁻¹). Importantly, the JPCMF exhibits outstanding durability and stability thanks to a novel electrostatic adsorption-assisted self-adhesion strategy for resisting abrasion, peeling and pulling. With these characteristics, the JPCMF can achieve a 4.0 °C personal cooling management effect, better than taht of cotton fabric, on wet skin. The good biocompatibility and nontoxicity also endow the JPCMF with the potential to be a self-pumping dressing. Our strategy should facilitate a new method for developing next-generation intelligent multifunctional fabrics. © Donghua University, Shanghai, China 2022.