A super breathable skin-like fabric with artificial sweating glands to excrete fluid droplets and repel external liquids.

Maintaining thermal comfort within the human body is crucial for optimal health and overall well-being. By merely broadening the set-point of indoor temperatures, we could significantly slash energy usage in building heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems. In recent years, there has been a surge in advancements in personal thermal management (PTM), aiming to regulate heat and moisture transfer within our immediate surroundings, clothing, and skin. The advent of PTM is driven by the rapid development in nano/micro-materials and energy science and engineering. An emerging research area in PTM is personal radiative thermal management (PRTM), which demonstrates immense potential with its high radiative heat transfer efficiency and ease of regulation. However, it is less taken into account in traditional textiles, and there currently lies a gap in our knowledge and understanding of PRTM. In this review, we aim to present a thorough analysis of advanced textile materials and technologies for PRTM. Specifically, we will introduce and discuss the underlying radiation heat transfer mechanisms, fabrication methods of textiles, and various indoor/outdoor applications in light of their different regulation functionalities, including radiative cooling, radiative heating, and dual-mode thermoregulation. Furthermore, we will shine a light on the current hurdles, propose potential strategies, and delve into future technology trends for PRTM with an emphasis on functionalities and applications.

Cell encapsulation has been shown to hold promise for effective, long-term treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, challenges remain for its clinical applications. For example, there is an unmet need for an encapsulation system that is capable of delivering sufficient cell mass while still allowing convenient retrieval or replacement. Here, we report a simple cell encapsulation design that is readily scalable and conveniently retrievable. The key to this design was to engineer a highly wettable, Ca²⁺-releasing nanoporous polymer thread that promoted uniform in situ cross-linking and strong adhesion of a thin layer of alginate hydrogel around the thread. The device provided immunoprotection of rat islets in immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice in a short-term (1-mo) study, similar to neat alginate fibers. However, the mechanical property of the device, critical for handling and retrieval, was much more robust than the neat alginate fibers due to the reinforcement of the central thread. It also had facile mass transfer due to the short diffusion distance. We demonstrated the therapeutic potential of the device through the correction of chemically induced diabetes in C57BL/6 mice using rat islets for 3 mo as well as in immunodeficient SCID-Beige mice using human islets for 4 mo. We further showed, as a proof of concept, the scalability and retrievability in dogs. After 1 mo of implantation in dogs, the device could be rapidly retrieved through a minimally invasive laparoscopic procedure. This encapsulation device may contribute to a cellular therapy for T1D because of its retrievability and scale-up potential.

Interfacial solar vapor generation (ISVG) was first proposed in 2014 and it has gained more and more attention from academia due to its tremendous improvement in evaporation efficiency compared with previous bottom and volumetric heating designs. With significant efforts put into this field, the current evaporation rate of the system can attain 4 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ under one sun irradiation. To catch up with the up-to-date development of ISVG systems, we prepare this review article to summarize the recent development in this field. In this review, we first introduce the constituent elements of an ISVG system, namely substrates and photothermal materials. Following this, several fabrication techniques for ISVG systems are highlighted to enable all-in-one ISVG architecture designs. The central parts of this review include the design principles and optimization strategies of ISVG systems, salt rejection and condensation strategies. Finally, various application scenarios, including seawater desalination, sterilization, and water-electricity/water-fuel production, are introduced in detail, followed by conclusions and future perspectives. ISVG is a green and low-cost technique for producing clean water driven by solar energy, which shows great application potential in remote and off-grid regions. With continuous efforts and improvement, it is envisioned that ISVG will become a complementary technique to current water treatment technologies soon.