Tree-like structure driven water transfer in 1D fiber assemblies for Functional Moisture-Wicking Fabrics

Effective moisture transfer is a fundamental process in natural systems, especially plants, and serves as an inspiration for engineered materials. Despite outstanding progress in bionic engineering to simulate water movement within trees, biomimetic design in one-dimensional (1D) fiber assemblies is still limited. Here, an advanced composite yarn structure inspired by the moisture transfer in trees is reported. Utilizing the scale difference between cotton fibers and electrospun nanofibers, the engineered tree-like-core spun yarn effectively transported liquid moisture from one side of the yarn to the other. The core structure of the spun yarn was precisely designed by controlling the fineness of the nanofibers and the thickness of the nanofiber layer. Moreover, fabrics based on the tree-like-core spun yarn had reduced relative water content on the top surface (0%) and a high one-way transport index of 846%, which is more than twice as high as traditional fabrics, demonstrating potential for moisture-heat transmission, biosensors, and microfluidics applications. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.