Moisture-wicking fabric for radiation cooling

With the acceleration of global warming and the rise in extreme weather events, the issue of human thermal comfort has gained increasing attention.

A research team led by Professor Xianhu Liu at Zhengzhou University, Henan, China, has developed a PLA/BNNS composite fabric via electrospinning, featuring enhanced hydrophilicity to optimize functional performance. This innovative fabric integrates passive radiative cooling, high thermal conductivity, and efficient directional moisture wicking to improve thermal comfort for individuals working in hot outdoor environments. Compared to conventional cotton fabrics, the composite demonstrates outstanding performance: it achieves an average solar reflectance of 96%, infrared emissivity of 93%, and thermal conductivity of 0.38 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹. Its directional water transport and high evaporation rate enable rapid heat dissipation, keeping the body dry and cool. Notably, the fabric reduced skin temperature by 2 °C during the day and 4 °C at night compared to bare skin. These results underscore the potential of PLA/BNNS composite fabrics as a promising solution for personal thermal management in extreme outdoor conditions.

The team published their research article in Nano Research on June 20, 2025.

“Herein, we employ a simple, scalable electrospinning process to develop polylactic acid (PLA)/ boron nitride nanosheet (BNNS) composite fabrics that feature exceptional passive radiation cooling performance by incorporating a photonic structure. Following this, we apply hydrophobic modification to achieve asymmetric wettability in the PLA/BNNS fabric, which enhances directional water transport and improves sweat evaporation efficiency.” said Xianhu Liu, Professor and PhD supervisor at Zhengzhou University, affiliated with the National Engineering Research Centre for Rubber and Plastic Moulds and the National Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis, Optimisation and CAE Software for Industrial Equipment. Professor Liu is recognized as one of the World's Most Cited Scientists (Web of Science) and ranks among the World's Top 2% of Scientists (Scopus).

The human body naturally dissipates heat through four primary mechanisms: infrared radiation, conduction, convection, and sweat evaporation. However, most conventional textiles exhibit low thermal conductivity and poor moisture management, limiting their ability to facilitate effective heat loss. In response, researchers have explored the integration of high thermal conductivity fillers into fabric structures to enhance heat transfer through conduction and convection.

Composite textiles embedded with boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS) have shown significant potential in improving thermal regulation by effectively reducing skin temperature under heat stress. In a previous study, Professor Xianhu Liu’s team demonstrated that the incorporation of BNNS substantially enhances thermal conductivity and promotes heat dissipation. “While the integration of thermally conductive fillers like BNNS improves cooling through conduction and convection,” Liu noted, “their performance remains highly dependent on ambient conditions and may be insufficient under extreme heat exposure.”

To address this multifaceted challenge, a research team led by Professor Xianhu Liu at Zhengzhou University has developed a novel composite fabric using a scalable electrospinning technique. The fabric combines polylactic acid (PLA) with thermally conductive BNNS and introduces asymmetric wettability through surface modification. This design integrates three key heat dissipation mechanisms: passive radiative cooling, enhanced thermal conductivity, and efficient directional sweat evaporation.

The research team anticipates that advances in radiative cooling textiles will lead to multifunctional personal thermal management solutions, especially in extreme outdoor environments. According to Professor Xianhu Liu, "Radiative fabrics are expected to become increasingly sophisticated, integrating directional moisture transport and enhanced evaporation capabilities to address the limitations of radiation-only cooling." These fabrics will adapt to dynamic human conditions by balancing passive cooling with active moisture regulation, thereby ensuring comfort and performance in real-world scenarios.

This work exemplifies the potential of integrating photonic engineering, material science, and textile design to develop next-generation garments capable of mitigating heat stress in extreme environments. As thermal regulation becomes an increasingly vital public health concern, multifunctional fabrics like this one offer a promising pathway toward sustainable and adaptive cooling technologies.

Other contributors include Zhenliang Gao, Yajie Wang, Yamin Pan, Chuntai Liu, Changyu Shen from the National Engineering Research Centre for Advanced Polymer Processing Technology, Zhengzhou University. Jun Ma from UniSA STEM and Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia.

About the Authors

Xianhu Liu is a full Professor at Zhengzhou University. He is recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher, the Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Henan Provincial Outstanding Youth Fund, and the Feng Xinde Polymer Prize (Nomination Award), among others.

About Nano Research

Nano Research is a peer-reviewed, open access, international and interdisciplinary research journal, sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society, published by Tsinghua University Press on the platform SciOpen. It publishes original high-quality research and significant review articles on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, ranging from basic aspects of the science of nanoscale materials to practical applications of such materials. After 18 years of development, it has become one of the most influential academic journals in the nano field. Nano Research has published more than 1,000 papers every year from 2022, with its cumulative count surpassing 7,000 articles. In 2024 InCites Journal Citation Reports, its 2024 IF is 9.0 (8.7, 5 years), and it continues to be the Q1 area among the four subject classifications. Nano Research Award, established by Nano Research together with TUP and Springer Nature in 2013, and Nano Research Young Innovators (NR45) Awards, established by Nano Research in 2018, have become international academic awards with global influence.