Abstract
A novel method to prepare durable superhydrophobic fabrics through pre‐applying an alkyl silane (alkyl chain longer than C15) onto fabric substrate and by subsequent vacuum plasma treatment in argon is reported. The treated fabrics show a contact angle of 154.2° with low contact angle hysteresis (sliding angle 4.5°). The coatings are durable and can withstand 150 cycles of standard laundries. The argon plasma treatment is found to significantly enhance SiOSi bonding among the silane molecules, leading to a highly crosslinked silica network. The silane coating also shows high optical transparency. Apart from fabrics, other substrates such as filter paper, plastic film, glass slide, silicon wafer, and metal are treated in a similar way, and all the treated surface show durable hydrophobicity, though the contact angle is lower than that of the coated fabrics. Post‐crosslinking of silane through argon plasma treatment may offer a facile but environment‐friendly way to prepare durable superhydrophobic fabrics.
Highlights
Superhydrophobicity has attracted considerable attention in both scientific and industrial sectors over recent decades, owing to its potential applications in self-cleaning, anti-sticking, anticontamination, drag reduction, and corrosion resistance.[1,2,3,4] Superhydrophobic fabrics are anticipated to have strong decontamination ability but still maintain the excellent breathability
We have proved that durable superhydrophobic fabrics can be prepared by a twostep method which involves pre-applying an alkyl silane on fabric substrate and subsequent treatment of the pre-coated fabric with argon (Ar) plasma
The silane coated fabrics were subsequently subjected to a vacuum radio frequency (RF) plasma treatment using argon as gas source
Summary
Superhydrophobicity has attracted considerable attention in both scientific and industrial sectors over recent decades, owing to its potential applications in self-cleaning, anti-sticking, anticontamination, drag reduction, and corrosion resistance.[1,2,3,4] Superhydrophobic fabrics are anticipated to have strong decontamination ability but still maintain the excellent breathability. Superhydrophobic fabrics were prepared by forming a hydrophobic silane coating on fiber surface through a sol-gel route,[23,24,25] microwave radiation,[26] UV light radiation,[27] or plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD).[28,29,30] The last method typically involved a polymerization process in which silane molecules are deposited on substrate during plasma treatment. We have proved that durable superhydrophobic fabrics can be prepared by a twostep method which involves pre-applying an alkyl silane (alkyl chain longer than C15) on fabric substrate and subsequent treatment of the pre-coated fabric with argon (Ar) plasma. This post plasma treatment considerably enhances the formation of Si-O-Si bonds. We applied silane on other substrates such as filter paper, plastic film, glass slide, silicon wafer and metal, and all the treated surface showed durable hydrophobicity, except for the lower contact angle than the coated fabrics
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