Sustainable smart textiles for personal self-cooling and heating cloth: review

The escalating climate crisis, driven by global warming, has resulted in extreme temperature instability. This phenomenon poses significant challenges to various human activities, including household, office, and industrial activities. Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are crucial in maintaining comfortable indoor environments. However, the energy consumption associated with these systems, often characterized by inefficiencies, contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, further exacerbating global warming. The global quest for energy efficiency demands innovative solutions to reduce reliance on centralized HVAC systems, which are major contributors to energy consumption and environmental burdens. Traditionally, clothing has served as a body covering, but advancements in material science are transforming textiles into intelligent partners for human comfort. Recent progress has focused on self-regulating textiles with cooling, heating, and dual-mode (cooling-heating) features that operate without external energy input. Radiative thermal mechanisms account for More than 65% of human body heat dissipation and are essential for thermal comfort. This review examines recent advancements in composite structures and polymer–metal/inorganic hybrid materials developed for radiative thermal regulation in textiles. It also highlights the potential of bio-based resources, such as lignocellulose, as sustainable alternatives to conventional synthetic fibers like polyester and thermoplastic polymers, an aspect that remains underexplored in previous reviews. In addition, the article examines fundamental mechanisms, fabrication approaches, and thermoregulation performance, while outlining the challenges and future opportunities of renewable-resource-based smart textiles as a foundation for further research.