Published August 13, 2025 | Version v1
Journal article

Sweat-sensitive adaptive warm clothing

  • 1. Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • 2. Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • 3. University of Chicago

Description

Thermal regulation in warm clothing is essential for enhancing human comfort in cold environments. However, traditional warm clothing lacks the ability to adapt to dynamic changes in the human body's microenvironment. Here, we present an adaptive warm cloth, featuring a filling made of a natural bacterial cellulose membrane that responds to human sweating. The cloth's thickness automatically adjusts from 13 millimeters (under low humidity and no sweating conditions) to 2 millimeters (under high humidity and sweating conditions), expanding the thermal regulation capability by 82.8% compared to traditional warm clothing with an unchanged thickness of 13 millimeters. Modeling results further suggest that deploying this adaptive warm clothing across 20 cities in China could extend the duration of the no thermal stress zone by an average of 7.5 hours. Combining exceptional thermal regulation, high stability, and scalability, this clothing represents a notable supplement to existing thermal management technologies.

Data availability

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials.

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.adu3472
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:16197

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China
5230130227
National Natural Science Foundation of China
12225205
National Natural Science Foundation of China
12261160367
National Natural Science Foundation of China
U2441272
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
4017-YQR22012
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
NS2023060
Key Research and Development Program of Jiangsu Province
BE2023815
Key Research and Development Program of Jiangsu Province
BK20243044
Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professors
Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures
MCAS-I-0525K01
Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures
MCAS-IS-0124K01

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering