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A type of polyester-based self-matting waterborne polyurethane (ESMWPU) with an excellent matte effect of 0.8° and transmittance of 78.5% for PVC artificial leather was synthesized. The influence of synthesis parameters, including R value, crosslinking and hydrophilic group content, on coating gloss and transmittance was investigated. Meanwhile, the properties necessary for applying water-based resins to plasticized PVC were detailed. The results demonstrated that R value, crosslinking degree and hydrophilic group content synergistically decided the morphological changes of latex particles during their film-forming process in three aspects: particle stiffness, three-dimensional structure and particle size, respectively. With optimized parameters of R = 1.9, TMP = 2 wt% and DMPA = 1.75 wt%, ESMWPU latex particles stabilized their spherical shapes without collapsing in the film-forming process and created a rough surface, resulting in a matte effect. In terms of application performance, good wetting and adhesion for ESMWPU to a plasticized PVC surface was achieved with a 2 wt% leveling agent load. Moreover, due to the high cohesion energy of ester bonds and intermolecular hydrogen bonds, this type of polyester-based ESMWPU also depicted admirable thermal adhesion resistance. All aforementioned results distinctly demonstrate a feasible yet promising paradigm for applying ESMWPU on PVC artificial leather.

Thermal comfort is of critical importance to people during hot weather or harsh working conditions to reduce heat stress. Therefore, personal cooling garments (PCGs) is a promising technology that provides a sustainable solution to provide direct thermal regulation on the human body, while at the same time, effectively reduces energy consumption on whole-building cooling. This paper summarizes the current status of PCGs, and depending on the requirement of electric power supply, we divide the PCGs into two categories with systematic instruction on the cooling materials, working principles, and state-of-the-art research progress. Additionally, the application fields of different cooling strategies are presented. Current problems hindering the improvement of PCGs, and further development recommendations are highlighted, in the hope of fostering and widening the prospect of PCGs.