Fabrication of cotton/polyethylene glycol/stainless steel wire friction spun composite yarn and its application in electrothermal phase change textile

This work successfully fabricated a textile with phase change and electrothermal function using a novel method. First, a core-sheath-structure composite yarn (cotton/polyethylene glycol/cotton/stainless steel wire) was prepared through friction spinning and sizing. Secondly, the composite yarn was weaved with 2-ply cotton yarns to form an electrothermal phase change textile. The resulting composite fabric possesses good phase change reliability after 50 heating/cooling cycles and exhibits great electrothermal repeatability after 50-cycle durability test. The addition of polyethylene glycol can increase the maximum surface temperature of the fabric (e.g., the highest temperature of the fabric can reach 66 degrees C when the voltage is 5 V, while the highest temperature of the blank sample is 56 degrees C), extend the heat time of composite fabrics, alleviate dramatic temperature fluctuations while charging and discharging, and improve the surface temperature distribution uniformity of the fabric. The described method displays a new platform for developing electrothermal heating elements utilized in flexural heaters, medical electrothermal, and defrosting.

Automated summary

This work successfully fabricated a textile with phase change and electrothermal function using a novel method. The resulting composite fabric possesses good phase change reliability and exhibits great electrothermal repeatability, making it a promising material with various applications.