An ultra-thin colored textile with simultaneous solar and passive heating abilities

Personal thermal management, especially heating up the space around human body, consumes substantial global resources. While traditional methods (such as room heaters) for personal heating are mostly energy-wasting and eco-unfriendly, ultra-thin textile with localized heating ability has recently gained significant attention. To date, passive radiative heating textiles are designed exclusively for indoor scenario and the coloration remains challenging. Herein, the authors report a colored nanophotonic structure textile (~16 μm thickness) with localized heating ability for both indoor and outdoor environments: (a) solar heating by selectively absorbing sunlight and converting it into heat (maximum absorbance ~ 50%) and (b) passive heating by suppressing radiative heat loss with a low-emissivity outer surface (infrared emissivity ~ 10%). This textile enables a 3.8 °C temperature enhancement of the artificial skin in indoor environment and a 6.3 °C temperature enhancement under sunlight compared with 2-mm-thick black sweatshirt, as well as excellent aesthetics, wearability and manufacturability. This colored textile with simultaneous solar and passive heating abilities is effective for energy-saving personal thermal management, and paves an innovative way to the sustainable development. Ultra-thin radiative textile with cost-effective localized heating ability has gained significant attention in recent years. However, passive radiative heating textiles to date are designed exclusively for indoor scenario and the coloration remains challenging. The authors report a colored nanophotonic structure textile with localized heating ability for both indoor and outdoor environments: (a) solar heating by selectively absorbing sunlight and converting it into heat and (b) passive heating by suppressing radiative heat loss with a low-emissivity outer surface. [Display omitted] •Textile with simultaneous solar (broadband solar absorption) and passive heating abilities (low mid-infrared emissivity).•Ultra-thin textile (~16 μm) with heating ability comparable to thick commercial textiles.•The textile presents various colors (orange, magenta, purple and blue), and excellent wearability.•Facile fabrication involves only simple film deposition and scalable fabrication with roll-to-roll system is practical.