Fabrication of superhydrophobic cotton fabrics by a simple chemical modification

Cellulose, Apr 2016

Hydrophobization of cotton fabrics was carried out with the use of bifunctional polysiloxanes with various contents of functional groups. Polysiloxanes contained in their structure groups capable of bonding to substrates (trialkoxysilyl or glycidyl ones) and fluoroalkyl groups showing surface activity. Two methods of surface modification were compared: (1) a one-step method via the chemical modification of fabrics with solutions of bifunctional polysiloxanes and (2) a two-step method—via preliminary modification of fabrics with silica sol followed by chemical modification with solutions of bifunctional polysiloxanes. The hydrophobicity was determined by measuring the water contact angle by drop profile tensiometry. Changes in the surface topography were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Superhydrophobic fabrics were obtained by a simple one-step method by the chemical modification in solutions of bifunctional polysiloxanes. The fabrics maintained their superhydrophobic properties even after multiple washings. The modification does not cause any changes visible to the naked eye, such as stiffening, color changes or a decrease in mechanical properties.

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10570-016-0940-z.pdf

Fabrication of superhydrophobic cotton fabrics by a simple chemical modification

Cellulose Fabrication of superhydrophobic cotton fabrics by a simple chemical modification 0 M. Nowicki Institute of Physics, Poznan ́ University of Technology , Piotrowo 3, 60-965 Poznan ́ , Poland 1 H. Maciejewski Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University , Umultowska 89b, 61-614 Poznan ́ , Poland 2 M. Przybylak H. Maciejewski (&) A. Dutkiewicz I. Da ̨bek Poznan ́ Science and Technology Park , Rubiez_ 46, 61-612 Poznan ́ , Poland Hydrophobization of cotton fabrics was carried out with the use of bifunctional polysiloxanes with various contents of functional groups. Polysiloxanes contained in their structure groups capable of bonding to substrates (trialkoxysilyl or glycidyl ones) and fluoroalkyl groups showing surface activity. Two methods of surface modification were compared: (1) a one-step method via the chemical modification of fabrics with solutions of bifunctional polysiloxanes and (2) a two-step method-via preliminary modification of fabrics with silica sol followed by chemical modification with solutions of bifunctional polysiloxanes. The hydrophobicity was determined by measuring the water contact angle by drop profile tensiometry. Changes in the surface topography were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Superhydrophobic fabrics were obtained by a simple one-step method by the chemical modification in solutions of bifunctional polysiloxanes. The fabrics maintained their superhydrophobic properties even after multiple washings. The modification does not cause any changes visible to the naked eye, such as stiffening, color changes or a decrease in mechanical properties. Superhydrophobicity; Cotton fabrics; Polysiloxane; Sol-gel; Dip coating Introduction In recent years, there has been increased interest in the research and production of highly hydrophobic natural textiles due their unique characteristics such as selfcleaning, anti-contamination and anti-sticking (Ivanova and Zaretskaya 2011; Erasmus and Barkhuysen 2009; Xu et al. 2011) . Natural fibers consists mainly of cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignins and pectins, the structures of which contain, among others, hydroxyl groups. In spite of the many advantages of natural fibers, they cannot be applied for many purposes because of their high polarity and hydrophilicity (resulting mainly from the presence of hydroxyl groups). The excessive moisture absorbability weakens materials made from natural fibers (a decreased adhesion), and at the same time it favors the growth of microorganisms (fungi, molds, bacteria). To bypass the above disadvantages, natural fibers are subjected to specific modifications of their surfaces aimed at creating an appropriate hydrophobic barrier. Nonwettable textiles with a high water contact angle (WCA), particularly the superhydrophobic ones (i.e., those with WCA[150 ), are a contemporary research topic because of the significant commercial and industrial importance of low-surface-free-energy cellulosic materials for different apparel and technical applications such as protective clothing, stain-resistant fabrics and clothing for medical personnel. The wettability of a surface depends on two factors: (1) its chemical composition and (2) its structure (roughness). Different techniques for producing rough surfaces were developed by imitating nature (biomimetics); however, in textile production most of them cannot be recreated. Only the introduction of nanotechnology processes, such as electrospinning (Hutmacher and Dalton 2011) , plasma treatment (Kan et al. 2011; Mihailovic´ et al. 2011; Patin˜o et al. 2011; Sun and Qiu 2012; Vasiljevic´ et al. 2013) and sol–gel technology (Mahltig 2011; Bae et al. 2009; Vilcˇnik et al. 2009; Zhu et al. 2011; Zhao et al. 2010; Simoncˇicˇ et al. 2012; Shateri-Khaliladad and Yazdanshenas 2013; Berendjchi et al. 2011; Chen et al. 2010) , have enabled breakthroughs in the creation of superhydrophobic and self-cleaning textiles. In particular, the latter are very popular because the production and application of particles and nanoparticles on a surface make it possible to easily control its roughness. The mild preparation conditions offer the possibility of incorporating a wide range of labile organic species. Moreover, sol–gel-derived materials exhibit tunable porosity, transparency, hardness and good thermal stability (Basu et al. 2010; Xu et al. 2010) . There are several kinds of inorganic nanosize particles, such as SiO2, TiO2 and ZnO, which can be introduced onto the textile surface. However, this method only enables producing a suitable roughness of the surface, whereas to make it strongly hydrophobic, a chemical modification is necessary. Sometimes in the sol–gel process compounds such as, e.g., alkyltrialkoxysilanes (Mahltig and Bo¨ttcher 2003; Xu et al. 2011; ShateriKhaliladad and Yazdanshenas 2013; Pipatchanchai and Srikulkit 2007) or functionalized silicas (Leng et al. 2009; Xue et al. 2009; Zhang and Wang 2013; Hoefnagels et al. 2007) are directly em (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10570-016-0940-z.pdf

Marcin Przybylak, Hieronim Maciejewski, Agnieszka Dutkiewicz, Izabela Dąbek, Marek Nowicki. Fabrication of superhydrophobic cotton fabrics by a simple chemical modification, Cellulose, 2016, pp. 2185-2197, Volume 23, Issue 3, DOI: 10.1007/s10570-016-0940-z