Stable super-hydrophobic and comfort PDMS-coated polyester fabric

Liyun Xu,Chengjiao Zhang,Kaifang Xie,Yuegang Liu

doi:10.1515/epoly-2021-0059

Liyun Xu, Chengjiao Zhang + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1515/epoly-2021-0059

Copy DOI

Abstract

Abstract Super-hydrophobic fabrics have shown great potential during the last decade owing to their novel functions and enormous potential for diver’s applications. Surface textures and low surface energy coatings are the keys to high water repellency. However, the toxicity of nanomaterials, long perfluorinated side-chain polymers, and the fragile of micro/nano-texture lead to the super-hydrophobic surfaces are confined to small-scale uses. Thus, in this article, a stable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-coated super-hydrophobic poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabric (PDMS-g-PET) is manufactured via dip-plasma crosslinking without changing the wearing comfort. Benefiting from the special wrinkled structure of PDMS film, the coating is durable enough against physical abrasion and repeated washing damage, which is suffered from 100 cycles of washing or 500 abrasion cycles, and the water contact angle is still above 150°. This study promotes the way for the development of environmentally friendly, safe, and cost-efficient for designing durable superhydrophobic coatings for various practical applications.

Highlights

Super-hydrophobic surface commonly existed in the surface of bios, well-known as lotus leaves, butterfly wings
Considering the comprehensive demands of waterrepellent fabric, normally industry hydrophobic fabric was directly coated by hydrophobic polymer-like polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) [5], poly(acrylic acid) [15], polyurethane (PU) [16], Ecoplus (Rudolf Gruop), and Zelan R3 (DuPont) with alkyl group [17] or perfluorinated side chain [18]
Due to perfluorinated chains of eight carbons or more, have been shown to be persistent in the environment and bio-accumulate in living organisms [21], prohibition of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in fabric cause the increasing interesting of fluorine-free water-repellent agent

Summary

Introduction

Super-hydrophobic surface commonly existed in the surface of bios, well-known as lotus leaves, butterfly wings, Considering the comprehensive demands of waterrepellent fabric, normally industry hydrophobic fabric was directly coated by hydrophobic polymer-like polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) [5], poly(acrylic acid) [15], polyurethane (PU) [16], Ecoplus (Rudolf Gruop), and Zelan R3 (DuPont) with alkyl group [17] or perfluorinated side chain [18]. Stable super-hydrophobic and comfort PDMS-coated polyester fabric 655 showed that NP-coated fabric achieved robustness for hundreds of abrasion and washing cycles. These NPs were taken away from fibers by increased friction force due to the high roughness. Due to perfluorinated chains of eight carbons or more, have been shown to be persistent in the environment and bio-accumulate in living organisms [21], prohibition of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in fabric cause the increasing interesting of fluorine-free water-repellent agent. Developing highly robust super-hydrophobic fabric with less change of fabric styles using fluorine-free materials is a great challenge

Methods

Results

Conclusion