Novel passive cooling composite textile for both outdoor and indoor personal thermal management

Personal cooling generally controls the temperature of an individual instead of a large space and therefore needs less energy. In this study, a novel design of a personal cooling textile utilizing thermal radiation to dissipate excessive heat on hot days was proposed for the first time, which was a tri-layered structure of nylon (PA), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyethylene (PE). By selectively absorbing/emitting the thermal radiation (η = 3.44) and reflecting sunlight (>90%), the composite textile decreased the temperature of the human body by 4.5–6.5 °C under direct sunlight, showing a high cooling capability, ca. 2.5 times that of traditional natural textiles. The composite textile provided cooling powers of 72.78 W/m2 indoors and 118.18 W/m2 outdoors, much more than traditional natural textiles. This cooling textile has the potential to be widely used among ordinary persons owing to the characteristics of lightweight, high cooling capability, high wearable comfort, no need for energy input and economy.