Electrospun silica-based fiber for developing multifunctional protective clothing

Protective clothing should provide comfort for wearers over a wide range of temperatures and adequate protection for body in some harsh environments. In the present work, we prepare lightweight ceramic fibrous mat based on electrospun SiO2-TiO2 composite fiber and a barrier between human body and extreme environments can be designed based on the fabric. The non-woven mat with a density of 0.045 g/cm(3) exhibits high flexibility and toughness, excellent compressibility with good reproducibility over 1000 cycles, and significantly low thermal conductivity of 0.044 W/m center dot K at room temperature. The addition of TiO2 reduces the thermal conductivity and improves the infrared reflection ability of the ceramic hybrid fibrous mat. At the same time, the fiber morphology in the mat can maintain at a high temperature, which expands the application of thermal protective clothing in different environment.