Phase-Separation-Engineered Porous Polyimide Fibers via Wet Spinning for Superior Thermal Insulation

Abstract

Personal thermal management (PTM) textiles can reduce building energy consumption and improve personal comfort, yet their practical application is constrained by the inherent trade-off between flexibility, thermal insulation, and mechanical strength. Herein, porous single-component polyimide (PI) fibers were fabricated via coagulation bath-modulated wet spinning of 3,3′,4,4′-benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA)–4,4′-oxydianiline (ODA) poly(amic acid) (PAA). By tuning the EtOH/H2O ratio (20/80–60/40) and winding speed (2.6–13.1 mm/s), the fiber cross-sectional morphology evolves from finger-like macropores to uniform spongy networks, with diameters controllable from 120 to 335 μm. The PI porous fibers exhibit a maximum tensile strength of 56.79 MPa, elongation at break of 13.89%, toughness of 4.98 MJ/m3, and thermal conductivity as low as 0.043 W·m−1·K−1. The highly imidized structure was confirmed by FTIR (imidization index = 0.848), and TGA revealed high thermal stability with 5% weight loss temperatures of 491 °C (N2) and 488 °C (air). Compared with commercial insulators, a single-layer PI fabric (0.892 mm) shows thermal insulation comparable to that of the thicker aramid 1313 fabric (1.588 mm) under the same 100–200 °C hot-plate conditions, while also exhibiting self-extinguishing behavior equivalent to that of aramid 1313. The 5-layer PI stack (3.637 mm) is only half as thick as glass fiber cotton (7.342 mm) but retains 84–91% of its temperature difference, delivering 1.7–1.8 times higher thickness-normalized insulation efficiency. The ultrathin porous PI fabrics integrate robust mechanical performance, excellent thermal shielding, and flame retardancy, and are promising for extreme-environment thermal management including fire protection, spacecraft thermal control, and battery insulation.