Engineered Network Architectures Enable High Breathability and Waterproofness of Coated Textiles

Abstract

Skin-like functional textiles, capable of simultaneously permitting water vapor transmission while preventing liquid water penetration, are highly demanded for diverse applications such as outdoor garments, medical dressings, and wearable devices; however, existing coated fabrics possess insufficient water vapor permeability, substantially limiting their applicability in high-performance breathable waterproof textiles. In this study, novel beautiful network architectures with open microchannels are engineered and coated on common woven fabrics to enable outstanding breathability and waterproofness via a facile yet powerful temperature-tuned networking strategy. The network architectures of coatings can be on-demand regulated by controlling both the water droplet diameter and penetration depth into coating solutions through the simple adjustment of the working temperature followed by the dip-coating of fluorinated acrylates to lower the surface energy of the networks, thus endowing the coated fabrics with open channels, small apertures, strong lyophobicity, and uniform complete network coverage. Benefiting from the above engineered network architectures, the resultant coated textiles exhibit high breathability with a water vapor transmission rate of 2825.6 g m^–2 day^–1 and elevated waterproofness with a hydrostatic pressure of 261 mmH₂O, making them highly suitable for implementation in personal protective equipment. This research on the network architecture coating offers a fresh design paradigm for developing next-generation coated materials for a broad range of applications.