Ti3C2Tx MXene-Decorated Nanoporous Polyethylene Textile for Passive and Active Personal Precision Heating

Heating the human body to maintain a relatively constant temperature is pivotal for various human functions. However, most of the current heating strategies are energy-consuming and energy-wasting and cannot cope with the complex and changing environment. Developing materials and systems that can heat the human body precisely via an efficient energy-saving approach no matter indoors/outdoors, day/night, and sunny/cloudy is highly anticipated for mitigating the growing energy crisis and global warming but is still a great challenge. Here, we demonstrate the low mid-infrared radiative (mid-IR) emissivity characteristic of Ti3C2Tx MXene and then apply it for energy-free passive radiative heating (PRH) on the human body. Our strategy is realized by simply decorating the cheap nanoporous polyethylene (nanoPE) textile with MXene. Impressively, the as-obtained 12 mu m thick MXene/nanoPE textile shows a low mid-IR emissivity of 0.176 at 7-14 mu m and outstanding indoor PRH performance on the human body, which enhances by 4.9 degrees C compared with that of traditional 576 mu m thick cotton textile. Meanwhile, the MXene/nanoPE textile exhibits excellent active outdoor solar heating and indoor/outdoor Joule heating capability. The three heating modes integrated in this wearable MXene/nanoPE heating system can be switched easily or combined arbitrarily, making this thin heating system able to heat the human body precisely in various scenarios like indoors/outdoors, day/night, and sunny/cloudy, providing multiple promising and energy-saving solutions for future all-day personal precision thermal management.

Automated summary

Developing materials and systems that can efficiently heat the human body precisely in various scenarios is crucial for addressing the energy crisis and global warming. By decorating nanoporous polyethylene textile with MXene, we achieved energy-free passive radiative heating on the human body, demonstrating excellent heating performance.