Ultralight and antibacterial fibrous sponges with interlaced crimped-fiber architecture for high-efficiency warmth retention

Abstract

High-efficiency warmth retention materials are urgently needed by human living in extremely cold environment to maintain their health and physical function. However, most existing fibrous warmth retention materials suffer from large weight, inefficient warm retention performance, and poor antibacterial ability. Here, we propose an innovative strategy to construct ultrafine fibrous sponges with interlaced crimped-fiber architecture by direct electrospinning technology. The stable three-dimensional (3D) network structures assemble from tangly curled ultrafine fibers, endowing the obtained sponges with ultralight characteristics (4.5 mg cm⁻³), robust elastic resilience (nearly full recovery from 100-cycle compressive deformations), and low thermal conductivity (24.1 mW m⁻¹ K⁻¹). Moreover, the in situ doping of chlorhexidine and fluoropolymer enables the sponges with efficient and durable antibacterial performance after washing processes (antibacterial rate up to 95.6% after 10 recycle washing experiments). This work opens a new way for the design of 3D fibrous materials with remarkable antibacterial performance for various fields.

Keywords:

• Electrospinning
• fibrous sponges
• ultralight
• antibacterial
• warmth retention

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51925302, 52103050, 52273053), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2021YFE0105100), and the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (No 21ZR1402600).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.