Durable Hydrophobic Polymer Coating on Silk Surface by Surfactant-aided Fluoro-monomer Polymerization Through Admicellar Technique

Abstract

Inspired by the lotus-leaf water repellent attribute, the ‘queen of textiles’, silk has been modified through the simple admicellar polymerization technique. Thin polymer coatings were successfully designed and fabricated on silk surfaces using surfactant-aided polymerization of 1H, 1H, 2H, 2H-Perfluorodecyl acrylate. The nanostructured surface morphology was studied by SEM and EDX. The structural changes of the surface due to new bond formation after surface modification were studied by FTIR technique. The water drop stay time test and water contact angle (WCA) measurement indicated that a substantial degree of hydrophobicity has been imparted to the silk surface. The best WCA of the polymer-coated silk was found to be 140.1°. The modified (cured at 60 °C) silk was studied to check the durability and quality of the polymer coating. The thermal stability of the coating was also found to be remarkably good. The modified hydrophobic surface showed enthralling durability against multiple washing cycles and abrasion cycles.