Fabrication of durable hydrophobic cellulose surface from silane‐functionalized silica hydrosol via electrochemically assisted deposition

Abstract

ABSTRACTDurable excellent hydrophobic surface on cellulose substrate was fabricated from the silica hydrosol functionalized with silane chemicals by a facile electrochemically assisted deposition technique. The silica hydrosol was synthesized using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the precursor and sodium dodecylbenzene (SDBS) as the emulsifier under acidic conditions. The hydrophobic silane modifiers including octyltriethoxysiliane (OTES), dodecyltriethoxysiliane (DTES) and isooctyltriethoxysiliane (iso‐OTES) and the silane‐coupling agent γ‐mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane (MPTES) were used to dope the silica hydrosol for preparing durable hydrophobic cellulose surface. The cellulose surface modified with silane modifier iso‐OTES exhibited the best hydrophobicity with water contact angle of 162.3 ± 0.5° due to its non‐polar and hydrolytically stable of Si(C8H17) groups. The addition of silane‐coupling agent MPTES containing the SH group led to good durability of hydrophobicity with water contact angle of 130.0 ± 1.2° after 20 washing times. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42733.