Superamphiphobic cotton fabric with photocatalysis and ultraviolet shielding property based on hierarchical ZnO/halloysite nanotubes hybrid particles

Abstract

The combination of photocatalysis and superamphiphobic cotton fabric has attracted extensive attention as it can not only repel the millimeter-scale contaminant droplets in daily life, but also photodegrade the micro-droplet pollutants with ultralow surface tension d in light. However, its invention is a great challenge. In this work, superamphiphobic cotton fabrics with photocatalysis and ultraviolet (UV) shielding property were fabricated based on fluorinated ZnO/halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) hybrid particles with micro/nano hierarchical structures and photocatalytic activity. The ZnO/HNTs hybrid particles were prepared by in-situ growth of ZnO nanoparticles on the surface of halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) with unique needlelike microstructure, high aspect ratio, eco-friendliness, low cost, biocompatibility, and abundance in nature. The fluorinated ZnO/HNTs (F-ZnO/HNTs) based on ZnO/HNTs were sprayed onto cotton fabrics to obtain superamphiphobic cotton fabrics with ultraviolet (UV) shielding and photocatalysis. The as-obtained cotton fabrics could repel common liquids in daily life even with low surface tension (the rapeseed oil contact angle was 154.3 ± 0.9°), exhibiting excellent superamphiphobic self-cleaning and antifouling properties. About 89 % of methylene orange was degraded after being irradiated by UV lamp for 4 h, indicating that the coated cotton fabric had excellent photocatalytic activity. Importantly, after 1500 cycles of mechanical abrasion, 60 h UV illumination or1h of immersion in acidic and alkali solutions, the coated cotton fabrics retained superamphiphobic performance. Due to the synergistic effect of the superamphiphobic and photocatalytic performance, the obtained cotton fabrics showed potential applications in various promising fields.