摘要
Due to fiber swelling,textile fabrics containing hygroscopic fibers tend to decrease pore size under wet or increasing humid-ity and moisture conditions,the reverse being true.Nevertheless,for personal thermal regulation and comfort,the opposite is desirable,namely,increasing the fabric pore size under increasing humid and sweating conditions for enhanced ventila-tion and cooling,and a decreased pore size under cold and dry conditions for heat retention.This paper describes a novel approach to create such an unconventional fabric by emulating the structure of the plant leaf stomata by designing a water responsive polymer system in which the fabric pores increase in size when wet and decrease in size when dry.The new fabric increases its moisture permeability over 50%under wet conditions.Such a water responsive fabric can find various applications including smart functional clothing and sportswear.
基金
supported by Prof.Fan’s Faculty Startup Fund of the College of Human Ecology,Cornell University
supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Number DMR-1719875
acknowledge Dr.Xia Zeng for equipment guidance and support,Charles V.Beach and Vincent Chicone for their assistance with the mask fabrication.Finally,the PI,Prof.Fan would like to acknowledge the funding support of RGC GRF project#15213920 and Hong Kong Polytechnic University Project of Strategic Importance#ZE1H for further analysis of the experimental data and improvement of the manuscript.
