Improving the thermal comfort of medical protective clothing based on micro-encapsulation phase change material

The coronavirus outbreak has led to a surge in demand for medical protective clothing. However, the poor heat dissipation and air permeability of medical protective clothing affect the working efficiency of the medical staff and even threaten their life safety and health. In this study, the phase change microcapsule was used to increase the heat loss inner the medical protective clothing and improve human thermal comfort. The microcapsule emulsion was integrated into a cotton lining and the microcapsule particles were further placed locally in the body. The comparative experiments were carried out with 10 subjects under near-neutral conditions. The skin temperature, thermal sensation and thermal comfort of different body parts were collected under various activity states. It is found that the use of 1.1 kg phase change microcapsules integrated into medical protective clothing could assist heat removal by 9.17% per hour at the conventional metabolic rate. In several body parts, the skin temperature of abdomen, back and limbs was lower, and the improvement effect was not significant. The skin temperature of the head, neck and chest is higher, and the phase change microcapsules have the best effect on thermal comfort. This study provides reference for the cooling of medical protective clothing.