Adaptable personalized thermoregulation through rational design of passive and active heat transfer

As extreme weather events become increasingly frequent and severe, sustaining thermal homeostasis under variable environmental conditions has become a growing challenge for maintaining thermal comfort and physiological stability. This study presents an energy-efficient, personalized thermoregulatory wearable that rationally integrates multimodal active and passive heat transfers to maintain human thermal comfort in all-weather conditions. The device offers a reversible operation in four distinctive modes: passive heat transfer through (i) radiative and evaporative cooling and (ii) solar heating, and active heat modulation through (iii) thermoelectric cooling and (iv) heating. The device employs an invertible, dual-sided architecture that enables switching between cooling and heating modes. Under mild weather conditions, the wearable maintains skin temperature within the thermal comfort zone through purely passive operation without external energy input. Under extreme conditions, it synergistically combines passive and active thermoregulation to sustain thermal comfort across ambient temperatures from − 10°C to 50°C. Compared with a conventional thermoelectric device, the proposed design reduces energy consumption by 14.3% and 24.9% for cooling and heating, respectively, during a 600-s operation. By adaptively offering both passive and active thermoregulatory modes, this work provides an energy-efficient strategy for personalized thermal management and effective thermal homeostasis in all-weather environments.