Superhydrophobic cotton fabrics prepared by one-step water-based sol–gel coating

Abstract

A simple one-step superhydrophobic coating method for cotton fabrics based on a modified silica hydrosol is presented in this study. The modified silica hydrosol was prepared by the co-hydrolysis/co-condensation of methyl trimethoxy silane and a non-fluoro compound, hexadecyltrimethoxysilane, via water-based sol–gel reaction under alkaline condition in the presence of a surfactant. The as-obtained products were characterized by particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and thermal gravimetric analysis. Superhydrophobic cotton fabric with a water contact angle of 151.9° for a 5 μL water droplet and a water shedding angle of 13° for a 15 μL water droplet was successfully obtained.

Keywords:

• superhydrophobicity
• silica hydrosol
• sol–gel reaction
• cotton fabrics
• one-step coating

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Key Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (No.109066) and by the Nano-project of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (0852nm00300). It was also funded by Innovation Foundation for Ph.D. Candidate of Donghua University (DHU) (9D10522).