Recent Advances in Colored Personal Thermal Management Textiles

In the context of global energy and climate crises, the demand for personal thermal management and energy-saving, environmentally friendly cooling technologies is rapidly increasing. Conventional radiative-cooling textiles are mostly white and therefore cannot satisfy contemporary aesthetic requirements for colored appearances, making colored radiative-cooling textile materials a current research hotspot. This paper reviews the latest advances in colored personal thermal-management textiles, comparing two types of color-generation mechanisms—passive coloration (structural color and chemical color) and active coloration (photoluminescence and electroluminescence)—and analyzing their application characteristics in colored personal thermal-management textiles. It points out that structural color is the optimal approach to simultaneously achieve high-efficiency cooling performance and color display. In addition, design strategies for single-functional and multifunctional textiles are systematically discussed. However, practical applications still face challenges such as insufficient material stability, complex fabrication processes, and high cost. Future work needs to focus on developing low-cost material systems with color-generation mechanisms better matched to personal thermal management, thereby promoting industrialization in this field.