Research progress of thermoregulating textiles based on spinning of organic phase change fiber of energy storage

Thermal energy storage can contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions, motivating the applications in aerospace, construction, textiles and so on. Phase change materials have been investigated extensively in the field of high-performance intelligent thermoregulating fabrics for energy storage. Advances toward fibers or fabrics for thermo regulation are developed, but leakage of phase change medium is a concern when directly coated or filled with fibers or fabrics. Thus, different spinning methods have appeared to integrate phase change materials into copolymer fiber to prepare phase change fiber. The present review has been divided into three parts and first deals with spinning technologies such as wet spinning, melt spinning, electrostatic spinning, and centrifugal spinning with the thermal properties and mechanical properties of phase change fiber. Among them, the phase change medium loading in the phase change fiber with wet spinning is up to 70 wt.%, while the fiber strength is below 2.12 cN/dtex. In contrast, phase change fiber prepared by melt spinning achieves a breaking strength of up to 37.31 cN/dtex, but with an enthalpy of only 8.48 kJ/kg. Considering electrostatic spinning, not only enthalpies are satisfactory but the fiber diameters are mostly below 1000 nm, matching with the softness requirement for fabric. Moreover, centrifugal spinning enables efficient production of phase change fiber of large enthalpy by controlling spinning parameters such as rotational speed and spinning fluid concentration. The second part reports that the thermal management effects of different intelligent thermo regulating fabrics are evaluated by designed experiments or simulations to investigate further the more comfortable conditions of thermal comfort of humans. Simulation and experimental results show that the energy storage of smart fabrics extends the time duration of thermal comfort by more than 300 s. In the last part, multifunctional intelligent thermoregulating fabrics are systematically discussed, such as light and heat response, ultraviolet resistance, air permeability, and water resistance. Practical applications of phase change fibers and intelligent thermoregulating fabrics should be further studied and broadened in the future.