Multifunctional wearable heaters have attracted much attention owing to their efficient application in personal thermal management. Inspired by the polar bear’s thermal management, a laminated fabric with enhanced photothermal conversion, mid-infrared reflection, thermal insulation, and electrical heating performance was developed in this work, which was made of CNT/cellulose aerogel layers, cotton fabrics, and copper nanowire (CuNW)-based conductive network (CNN) layers. The CNN layer made up of highly conductive CuNWs not only exhibits better conductivity to realize the Joule heating effect but also possesses a human mid-infrared reflection property. Moreover, the other side of the cotton fabric was laminated with CNT/cellulose aerogel, which enables the fabric to have a good photothermal conversion ability and thermal insulation performance. The temperature of the laminated fabric could reach to 70 °C within 80 s under 1.8 V; it requires more than 500 s to return to room temperature (28.7 °C). When the light intensity was adjusted to 1000 W/m2, the temperature of the laminated fabric was about 74.0 °C after lighting for 280 s. Our work provides a new approach to improving the performance and energy-saving of personal thermal management fabrics.

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Expandable graphite (EG) and dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) were added to polyurethane to form flame-retardant high-resilience flexible polyurethane foam (FPUF) in one-step. The effects of EG and DMMP on cell morphology, mechanical properties, dynamic mechanical properties, thermal degradation, and flame-retardant properties of FPUF were studied. The results indicated that adding proper amount EG or/and DMMP would not seriously damage cell morphology and mechanical properties. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) demonstrated that there were two tan d peaks attributed to soft and hard segment seperately and 15 pbw EG or/and 15 pbw DMMP could enhance damping property of FPUF. Thermogravimetric analysis-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TGA-FTIR) results indicated that 15 pbw EG or 15 pbw DMMP could improve the thermal stability of the second degradation step but there were no synergistic effect between the two. DMMP made FPUF composites produce more toxic gases such as CO, however, EG displayed an opposite effect. Both EG and DMMP could effectively improve the flame retardant properties of FPUF, and there was synergistic effect between the two. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 916-926, 2013

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