Fabrication of superhydrophobic coatings on cotton fabric using ultrasound-assisted in-situ growth method

Abstract

A highly durable superhydrophobic cotton fabric was fabricated via an ultrasound-assisted in situ growth method. The morphology and the component of the superhydrophobic coating on cotton fabric were characterized by SEM and FT-IR, respectively. The as-prepared superhydrophobic cotton fabric shows liquid repellency for common household liquids, outstanding stability in deionized water, various solvents, strong acidic/alkali solution, and boiling water, and good mechanical robustness after sandpaper abrasion test. Furthermore, the fabric coating shows both superhydrophobic and superoleophilic properties simultaneously with a high water contact angle of 154 ± 0.5°. Thus, the as-prepared superhydrophobic cotton fabric can be used to separate the oil/water mixtures (e.g., n-hexane, n-heptane, dodecane, and kerosene) and the separation efficiency was more than 96%. In addition, the obtained fabric maintains good reusability after 50 separation cycles with above 97% of the separation efficiency for the both dodecane/water and n-heptane/water mixture. The as-prepared fabric coating shows high separation efficiency, stable recyclability, and better durability, which can be used in oil spill accidents for oil/water separation.