Study on the Moisture Absorption and Thermal Properties of Hygroscopic Exothermic Fibers and Related Interactions with Water Molecules

The aim of this paper is to study the hygroscopic behavior of hygroscopic exothermic fiber-based materials and to obtain a better understanding of the thermal performance of these fibers during the moisture absorption process. The temperature distribution of different kinds of hygroscopic exothermic fibers in the process of moisture absorption, observed by infrared camera, demonstrated two types of heating performance of these fibers, which might be related to its hygroscopic behavior. Based on the sorption isotherms, a Guggenheim-Anderson-de Boer (GAB) multi-layer adsorption model was selected as the optimal moisture absorption fitting model to describe the moisture absorption process of these fibers, which illustrated that water sorption capacity and the water–fiber/water–water interaction had a significant influence on its heating performance. The net isosteric heats of sorption decreased with an increase of moisture content, which further explained the main factor affecting the heat dissipation of fibers under different moisture contents. The state of adsorbed water and water vapor interaction on the fiber surface were studied by simultaneous thermal analysis (TGA-DSC) measurement. The percentage of bound and unbound water formation at low and high humidity had a profound effect on the thermal performance of fibers. It can therefore be concluded that the content of tightly bound water a strong water–fiber interaction was the main factor affecting the heating performance of fibers at low moisture content, and the content of loosely bound water reflected that water sorption capacity was the main factor affecting the heating performance of fibers at high moisture content. This was further proven by the heat of desorption.