Calamus-leaf-inspired structural engineering, self-cleaning, and radiative cooling of trilayer textiles for advanced PPE

Outdoor personal protective equipment (O-PPE) plays a critical role in safeguarding individuals from external environmental hazards. However, traditional O-PPE is generally manufactured from coated fabrics, which often struggle to balance waterproof and breathability, and suffer from inadequate thermal regulation and non-degradability, all of which negatively impact work efficiency and health. In this study, a calamus-leaf-inspired polylactic acid/cellulose/polylactic acid (PLA/CEL/PLA) composite textile was successfully developed using scalable manufacturing processes, exhibiting a structural similarity of 74.28 % to calamus leaves. This textile exhibited distinct directional roughness and controllable surface energy, endowing it with excellent self-cleaning performance, demonstrated by a sliding angle as low as 35.2 °. By adjusting the mass ratio of silica, the sample simultaneously achieved a high infrared emissivity of up to 97.8 % and a reflectivity of 86.8 %, resulting in efficient radiative cooling performance. Furthermore, the textile possessed excellent mechanical properties and outstanding breathability, with a water vapor transmission rate of 1923.91 g/m 2 *24 h and a maximum tensile strength of 169 N. After 4000 cycles of abrasion testing, it showed only a 1.09 % mass loss, demonstrating remarkable durability. This biomimetic textile, integrating self-cleaning, radiative cooling, high mechanical strength, and permeability, represents one of the most promising candidates for high-performance O-PPE.