Multifunctional radiative cooling cellulose fabrics by in situ grown ZnO for personal thermal management

Abstract Personal thermal management textiles (PTMs) with cooling functions have garnered substantial interest because of their ability to regulate human body temperature and provide comfort through low energy consumption. However, the preparation of cellulose fabrics such as cotton with cooling function remains a challenge due to the often complex process of developing such textiles. A composite functional cellulosic fabric, based on cotton, is presented in this research to address the various inconveniences caused by hot summer weather. Controlled in situ growth of zinc oxide is achieved through hydrothermal synthesis. The ZnO nanorods deposited on the surface of the cotton fabric have excellent UV shielding ability and synergise solar reflection in the UV band, resulting in a UPF value of 300 + for the modified fabric, and this performance still reaches 80.25 after 100 friction cycles.The surface of the modified cotton fabric has a high solar reflectance (83.88%) and a high heat transfer coefficient (98 W·m^{− 2}·K^{− 1}), and a cooling effect of 3.0°C can be achieved in a simulated heating environment compared with that of the original cotton. Due to these excellent properties and simple operation steps, the cool-feeling fabrics made by in situ growth of ZnO nanorods on the surface of cotton fabrics have certain application prospects.