Intensive and thermally conductive boron nitride/aramid nanofiber composite fibers fabricated via a wet spinning technique

Abstract

In response to the increasingly diverse demands for clothing, self-cooling functional composite fibers composed of boron nitride (BN) nanosheets and aramid nanofibers (ANFs) were produced by using a scalable wet spinning technique. In this technique, the thermal conductive BN nanosheets were aligned along the fiber axis and acted as internal thermal transfer paths, while the ANFs completely wrapped BN sheets around and built a 3D interconnected network, providing excellent mechanical strength to the fibers. The thermal conductivity was significantly improved along the composite fiber axis compared to that of pure ANFs. The thermal imaging study of the fabrics knitted using composite fibers showed prominent heat transfer properties along the fiber axis. This study demonstrates that controlling the alignment of BN nanosheets along the fiber axis plays an important role in manipulating the thermal conductivities of fabrics and could contribute to the generation of self-cooling clothes.