A large-area versatile textile for radiative warming and biomechanical energy harvesting

Both thermal management and electricity generation are becoming two basic functions for next-generation clothing integrated with wearable electronics . However, such versatile textiles with a simple design and great comfort have been rarely reported. Here, we propose a tri-layer textile that not only realizes solar and passive radiative warming but also harvests biomechanical energy to generate electricity. The textile is achieved by assembling photothermal nanoparticles on an infrared-reflective and conductive fabric with a tribo-negative polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanofiber membrane on the backside. The textile offers both a minimal thermal emissivity (down to 11.0%) and a maximum solar absorptivity (up to 83.7%), effectively suppressing radiation heat loss and boosting the harvested solar-thermal energy. Wearing such a textile enables a 3 °C drop of the indoor heating setpoint compared to a cotton textile, saving 25.2–100% of building energy consumption in ten cities worldwide. Moreover, the textile can serve as a single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator . Remarkably high outputs (150–352 V, 7.5–27.8 μA) can be attained upon hand touching with different forces (14.7–44.0 N) and frequencies (0.9–3.9 Hz), which can power 41 LEDs. This textile opens a promising direction on how to develop a multifunctional energy-saving and electricity-generation textile while keeping thermal comfort for wearers.