A Trilayered Composite Fabric with Directional Water Transport and Resistance to Blood Penetration for Medical Protective Clothing

Functional textiles with enhanced moisture management can facilitate sweat transport away from the skin to improve personal comfort. However, porous materials exhibit low capability of preventing the intrusion of external liquids, becoming a bottleneck in the design of medical protective clothing. Herein, a trilayered composite fabric based on a gradient wettability structure is demonstrated for directional water transport and resistance to blood penetration. The proposed fabric shows distinct advantages, including a high water breakthrough pressure of 2.43 kPa from the external side, an outstanding positive water transport index (1522%), and an antiblood penetration resistance of 2.71 kPa. Moreover, the fabric shows improved comfort with a high moisture transmission (320 g m-2 h-1) and desired water evaporation rate (0.36 g h-1). This work addressed the concern of directional water transport and resistance to blood penetration while providing a comfortable wearing microenvironment, leading to a promising research direction for multifunctional medical textiles.