Superhydrophobic/Superhydrophilic Janus Fabrics Reducing Blood Loss

Abstract

Hemostatic fabrics are most commonly used in baseline emergency treatment; however, the unnecessary blood loss due to the excessive blood absorption by traditional superhydrophilic fabrics is overlooked. Herein, for the first time, superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic Janus fabrics (superhydrophobic on one side and superhydrophilic on the other) are proposed: the superhydrophilic part absorbs water in the blood to expedite the clotting while the superhydrophobic part prevents blood from further permeating. Compared with the common counterparts, effective bleeding control with reducing blood loss more than 50% can be achieved while the breathability largely remain by using Janus fabrics. The proposed prototypes can even prolong the survival time in the rat model with serious bleeding. This strategy for reducing blood loss via simply tuning wettability is promising for the practical applications.

A simple strategy of integrating the opposite wettability in hemostatic fabrics is proposed. Reduced blood loss, effective bleeding control, and even prolonged survival time are achieved. Many other benefits like relieving the psychological stress, obscuring the wound from infection, and reducing the transmission of infectious blood diseases may be expected.

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