Abstract
In order to obtain stable superhydrophobicity, suitable hydrophobic treatment agents should be selected according to different material properties. In this paper, cotton and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabrics were respectively coated with dodecyl methacrylate (LMA) via argon combined capacitively coupled plasma (CCP), and the surface hydrophobicity and durability of the treated cotton and polyester fabrics are also discussed. An interesting phenomenon happened, whereby the LMA-coated cotton fabric (Cotton-g-LMA) had better water repelling and mechanical durability properties than LMA-coated PET fabric (PET-g-LMA), and LMA-coated hydroxyl-grafted PET fabrics (PET fabrics were successively coated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and LMA, PET-g-PEG & LMA) had a similar performance to cotton fabrics. The water contact angles of Cotton-g-LMA, PET-g-LMA and PET-g-PEG & LMA were 156°, 153° and 155°, respectively, and after 45 washing cycles or 1000 rubbing cycles, the corresponding water contact angles decreased to 145°, 88°, 134° and 146°, 127° and 143°, respectively. Additionally, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and polyamides-6 (PA6) fabrics all exhibited the same properties as the PET fabric. Therefore, the grafting of hydroxyl can improve the hydrophobic effect of LMA coating and the binding property between LMA and fabrics effectively, without changing the wearing comfort.
Highlights
In 1997, Barthlott and Neinhuis [1] discovered the unique self-cleaning properties of lotus leaf, and electronic microscopy of the surface of lotus leaves showed protruding nubs of about 20–40 μm, covered with smaller-scale roughness [2]
Fabrics characteristic peaks of PEG-1000 [31]. These results indicated that after plasma treatment, poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabrics werewere successfully coated with excellenthydrophilicity hydrophilicity durability
It was found that the use of LMA could effectively improve the hydrophobicity of cotton and PET fabrics, with cotton-g-LMA fabrics exhibiting better durability and whose water contact angle decreased slowly and remained at 145.4◦ and 146.3◦, after 45 washing or 1000 rubbing cycles, respectively
Summary
In 1997, Barthlott and Neinhuis [1] discovered the unique self-cleaning properties of lotus leaf, and electronic microscopy of the surface of lotus leaves showed protruding nubs of about 20–40 μm, covered with smaller-scale roughness [2]. A lot of studies confirmed that the combination of nanoor micro-roughness, along with low surface energy, could result in a water contact angle higher than 150◦ [3]. Surfaces with these properties are called “superhydrophobic”. Researchers found ways to create superhydrophobic surfaces by tailoring the surface topography and chemical composition by using various techniques, such as layer-by-layer assembling [7], electrochemical deposition treatment [8], the sol-gel method [9], electrospinning [10], dip-coating [11], and their combinations [12]. The aforementioned methods usually rely on multi-step and time-consuming processes necessary for nanoparticle synthesis or functionalization
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