Abstract
With a commitment to environmental protection, sustainable practices and ethical standards, there is compelling motivation to replace animal feathers and wool with synthetic materials that mimic the natural curl structure of animal fibres. However, the fabrication of these curved structures remains challenging due to inherent limitations in fibre spinning technologies. Here we develop a grid-induced homogeneous turbulence spinning system to efficiently spray the spinning solution, resulting in the mass production of highly curved nanofibres (HCNFs). A garment made with HCNFs offers excellent overall performance in terms of wearability, comfort, porosity (~99.60%), weight, thermal conductivity, moisture permeability and breathability. Furthermore, the garment exhibits a superior clothing insulation value (measured in CLO) of 0.31 CLO mm−1 at 0 °C, which is twice that of an 850-fill-power goose-down garment (0.15 CLO mm−1). Moreover, the results of a life cycle impact assessment demonstrate that HCNFs made of polyvinyl butyral show notable sustainability advantages over 850-fill-power down across 14 indicators, including mineral resource scarcity, land use, ecotoxicity, water consumption and human toxicity (eight indicators are less than 5% of those for down). Our findings not only underscore the advantages of nanofibres with highly curved structures but also introduce sustainable materials that outperform traditional down, making them suitable and sustainable for mass-market production.
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Data availability
The related data are publicly available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.29372024 (ref. 47).
Code availability
The related codes are publicly available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15672497 (ref. 48).
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under grant numbers 52421001 (H. Wu), 52388201 (H. Wu), 12388101 (L.Z.), 92472106 (H. Wu), 52325312 (H. Wu), 92252104 (L.Z.) and 12302285 (Z. Cui). We sincerely thank J. Tian for his assistance with model checking and validation. We acknowledge L. Chen and Y. Shi for their valuable guidance in the carbon emissions calculations and for providing access to the GaBi and Ecoinvent databases. We thank H. Zhang for his advice in optimizing the production process through the application of AI and big data technologies. We thank S. Gao for his cooperation in the fabrication of the spinning equipment. We thank X. Liu for his cooperation in participating in the testing under low-temperature conditions. We thank B. Tian and F. Huang for their advice on fitting the relationship between curliness and porosity.
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H. Wu, L.Z. and S.Z. conceived the idea and supervised the research. H. Wu and Z. Cheng designed the experiments. Z. Cheng and Z. Cui designed and constructed the experimental system. Y. Liu, H. Wang, Z. Cheng and Z.X. performed the product LCA. Z. Cheng, Z. Cui, Z.L., S.G., H.K. and R. Zhou performed the modelling and simulations. Z. Cheng, Z. Cui, H.K., J.S., R. Zboray, R. Zhou, M.F., Y. Li, Y.Z., Y.Y., S. Lu, R.Y. and C.-Y.Y. synthesized the specimens and analysed the results of different characterization methods. H. Wu, S. Li, G.Z. and Z.X. participated in the industrialization of the technology and the global promotion of the product. H. Wu, L.Z., S.Z., Z. Cheng, J.S. and Z.L. contributed to writing the paper. C.M. provided professional English editing and language polishing of the paper.
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H. Wu and Z. Cheng confirm that patents were filed for this work through Tsinghua University. The other authors declare no competing interests.
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Nature Sustainability thanks Chenxi Sui, Xiaoming Tao and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Supplementary Texts 1–7, Figs. 1–42, Tables 1–19 and refs. 1–46.
Supplementary Video 1
Animation of GHTS method.
Supplementary Video 2
Demonstration of HCNF preparation.
Supplementary Video 3
High-speed camera demonstration of a large-scale preparation process for HCNFs.
Supplementary Video 4
CFD simulations for nanofibre curling under GHT.
Supplementary Video 5
Compression experiments of highly curved nanofibrous materials at 293 and 80 K.
Supplementary Video 6
Safety testing of HCNF garment under blizzard conditions.
Supplementary Video 7
Warmth testing of HCNF garment in a low-temperature environment.
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Cheng, Z., Cui, Z., Li, Z. et al. Biomimetic nanofibres for sustainable thermal insulation. Nat Sustain 8, 957–969 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01604-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01604-x
