Large-scale Fabrication of Snake-skin-inspired Protective Composite Textiles

Inspired by the overlapping structure of snake scales, a reinforced scale-like knitted fabric (R-SLKF) was created in this work. To achieve this, short carbon fibers in an epoxy resin (ER) matrix were incorporated into the scales of an SLKF. The resulting textile is a highly stable protective composite that is flexible, warm, and thermally insulated. In addition, superior stab-resistance is ensured through rigid protective blocks in the R-SLKF, making up a hard overlapping scale region, besides satisfactory flexibility via soft twisted ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene yarn-based textiles. The R-SLKF achieves high stab resistance (peak load of approximately 600 N for a single scale thickness of 2 mm), good flexibility (~ 290 mN cm), and breathability (100 MPa, 423 mm/s), coupled with good warmth retention and thermal insulation properties (0.28 ℃/s), which are superior to previously reported protective composite textiles. From the results, the combination of desirable individual protection, excellent wearability and comfort enables human beings to survive in extremely dangerous environments. Finite element simulations provided valuable insights into the factors influencing the stab resistance of R-SLKF and elucidated the underlying anti-puncture mechanism in accordance with the experimental findings. This study presents a novel strategy for the facile industrial fabrication of flexible and lightweight protective composite textiles, which is expected to enhance the structure and material design for future innovations and provide advantages for personal protective equipment in various industrial fields.

Graphical Abstract