Designing Self-Cleaning & Flexible Multifunctional Wearable Heater

Abstract

Wearable fabric heater has aroused wide concern in personalized temperature regulation. However, it is still challenging to develop multifunctional wearable heater with multimodal & fast thermal response, good flexibility, strong abrasion, excellent washability, good antibacterial performance, and recyclability. To accomplish these properties, a self-cleaning & flexible multifunctional wearable heater is designed by spraying mixture of Ti3C2Tx MXene/ZnO composite and PDMS on cotton fabric (CF-MZP). The designed CF-MZP fabric heater shows high photothermal/electrothermal/synergistic conversion properties and fast thermal response (just 30 s). Furthermore, the CF-MZP fabric possesses excellent superhydrophobic and self-cleaning properties that endow the heater with strong abrasion, excellent washability, and good antibacterial performance. Interestingly, the CF-MZP heater also exhibits good breathability, durability and flexible performance, which is demonstrated as a flexible wearable heater attached to knuckle position of a human body, showing steady temperature of around 50.9°C at a voltage of 3V or about 80.5 °C upon NIR lamp (0.2 W cm-2) irradiation, either relaxed and bending (90º or 180º) states. Furthermore, the CF-MZP heater can be recycled by separating ordinary oil-water mixture and high viscous heavy oil. Consequently, the designed CF-MZP fabrics provide a good perspective application in self-cleaning, recycled, and flexible wearable heaters.

Keywords: Multifunctional wearable heater, Self-cleaning, Flexibility, oil-water separation