Preparation and characterization of photothermal polyurethane/zirconium carbide fibrous membranes via electrospinning

Human activities in cold climates are more and more frequent. But, an efficient strategy to maintain the human body temperature is still a challenging work. In this paper, we propose a photothermal polyurethane/zirconium carbide(PU/ZrC) fibrous membrane assembled via electrospinning technique, which can make up for heat lost from the human body by absorbing and converting light energy. When the content of ZrC nanoparticles (Nps) was increased to 8%, the surface temperature of the composite fibrous membrane was increased to 66.5 degrees C after illumination for 150 s under a Xenon lamp. Besides, the surface morphologies, crystallization behavior, thermal property, mechanical property, wettability and air permeability of the fibrous membranes were also evaluated. The morphology of the fibrous membranes exhibited that mesh-like fibers were densely aligned and the hydrophobicity of the PU/ZrC composites could be improved when ZrC Nps were added. Moreover, the PU/ZrC membrane with low content of ZrC has outstanding mechanical properties and good air permeability. Our results indicate that the PU/ZrC membranes may have promising potentials in the applications of personal thermal management textiles.