Janus antistatic protective clothing for personal sweat management and electrostatic protection

Protective clothing with antistatic performance plays a significant role in reducing or eliminating the accumulation of static electricity. Unfortunately, antistatic protective clothing (APC) usually cannot adequately address the sweat management issue of our body, which can pose significant threats to the health of workers. Herein, we propose a novel method for constructing Janus APC (JAPC) through a single-side coating composed of carbon black/MOF/waterborne polyurethane acrylate (CB/MOF/WPUA)/laser drilling. Our JAPC shows an exceptional capability for unidirectional sweat transport, allowing sweat to quickly transport from the hydrophobic side to its hydrophilic side within 7 s. At the same time, it boasts an outstanding antistatic property (with a surface resistance of ∼ 10⁸ Ω). Due to the high adhesion of the coating to the fabric, JAPC can withstand over 500 friction cycles and 300 home laundry cycles, showing its good durability. In addition, the JAPC can keep the human body ∼ 2.9 ℃ cooler compared to wearing original chemical fiber fabric, significantly enhancing the comfort of people working in hot environments. Our work focuses on solving both challenges of sweat management and electrostatic protection, which may inspire new advances in the next-generation functional fabrics.