A multifunctional leather composite with good antibacterial and hygrothermal management capabilities

Abstract

If not removed in a timely manner, the large amount of sweat produced by overheated human skin can cause thermal discomfort and health problems. Development of fabrics with cooling and dehumidifying capabilities is advantageous to improving the quality of human life. In this work, a natural leather-based Zn-monoethanolamine@lignin (Zn-MEA@lignin-leather) composite fabric with personal hygrothermal management properties was fabricated by infiltrating the permeable 3D network microstructure of the natural leather collagen fiber bundles with adhering moisture-absorbent hydrogel containing photothermal lignin. Due to the efficiency of the composite hydrogel in trapping water molecules, the fabric can promote evaporation of sweat from overheated skin surfaces. Compared to the conventional textiles, the composite leather fabric can reduce the humidity of simulated skin surface by about 40 % and accelerate the evaporation of sweat from the skin surface to promote reduction in temperature of the overheated body. Thanks to the good photothermal conversion efficiency of lignin, the hydrated composite fabric exhibits a favorable evaporation regeneration rate (0.498 kg m⁻² h⁻¹). In addition, the presence of zinc ions in the coordination complex imparts good antimicrobial efficiency to the composite fabric, with inactivation rates approaching 99.99 % for both Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). Thus, the composite leather fabric holds great promise to personal hygrothermal management and healthcare.