Are you thinking of a material to put inside a wood chip path? How about regular black landscape fabric, black and passes water? A number of separate layers of fabric might work best.

I am not sure if you are suggesting a fabric that has weed-killing properties/chemicals in the fabric? The only thing I have used in just the regular black landscape fabric stuff.

Many of us find the landscape fabrics are not anything we would use in our gardens for any reason. In my experience all of the commercially available fabrics, made from non renewable resources, will allow "weeds" to grow through them and often will support root growth from the more persistent unwanted plants, especially grasses. The only advantage to using landscape fabric is that is might allow you to use less mulch material, ie. 2 inches instead of 4.

Don't go there - like leg-warmers in the 80's (or shell suits) no-one does that anymore.

Get the heaviest felt like landscape fabric. The thin stuff they sell at big box stores is junk. People still use landscape fabric. It works well in paths. I like using it in my nursery area so the container plants can't send roots into the ground. I would never use it in a planting area, but there are still good uses for the good stuff.

I have only used landscape fabric on one perennial bed and will never use it again. The quackgrass continued to grow under it and the ants find it's a great place to build their nests. It's on the list for removal this year.

I have much better results with layered cardboard under mulch. Eventually the quack grass dies and the cardboard decomposes and improves the soil. Costs nothing but is effective.

Landscape fabric as an underlayment for paths or any other flat landscaping is still often used and commonly recommended. It is NOT the same as using on a planting bed, which is a huge waste of time and money.

If you can, get the commercial grade. It is often used in wholesale growing nurseries and greenhouse operations and very effectively keeps out weeds while allowing water penetration.

I used landscape fabric under my wood chip mulch paths in a previous garden, and when I had to pull up some of it (I forget why) I found a lot of worms dead in the fabric, some half-alive stuck in it. It was the grey, spun fabric stuff. Since I wanted worms to travel freely in my garden, I removed it.

My current garden has cardboard under the mulch.

I have bought some from the big box stores and doubled it up to have a better guard against any plants.

Don't know if doubling it up was necessary but it made me feel better so that I wouldn't see any plants or weeds in that area. It has been about 2 years now and still looking good.

For a path, it's the perfect application. I've used several different kinds on my pathways and they've all worked well for nearly 15 years. As long as water can permeate downward, not puddling, that's what matters. The key thing is to use edgings for the path that are very sturdy and stable, because that way the path will look prettiest longest (if ornamental is what you are after). If you cover with mulch the sun will not be beating on the fabric, so it will last longer.