Facile fabrication of superhydrophobic conductive polydimethylsiloxane@silver nanowires cotton fabric via dipping-thermal curing method

Abstract

Abstract Superhydrophobic materials with special functions such as electrical conductivity, magnetism and self-repairing have attracted considerable attention. Herein, a superhydrophobic conductive polydimethylsiloxane@silver nanowires (PDMS@AgNWs) cotton fabric was fabricated via a simple dipping-thermal curing method. Owing to the combination of rough structure constructed by AgNWs and the covered low-surface-energy PDMS, the as-fabricated cotton fabric exhibited superhydrophobicity with a high water contact angle (WCA) of 156°, and the separation efficiency for oil-water mixture reached 95.6%. Importantly, taking advantage of the excellent conductivity and electrothermal conversion performance, the functional cotton fabric was successfully applied in the fields of quick deicing under low temperature and piezoresistive sensing for human motion. Our findings stand out as a new tool to prepare functional superhydrophobic materials with electrical conductivity and electrothermal effect for various potential applications.