Superhydrophobic (SH) property is a naturally occurring phenomenon that has a wide range of potential applications such as antiicing, anticorrosion, electrowetting, blood typing, and so forth, and therefore, inspires the researchers to mimic them over artificial surfaces to achieve desired properties.Low surface energy and suitable surface roughness are the two key factors that play a vital role in developing SH surfaces. Hence, when the target substrate is introduced with suitable roughness and consequently functionalized with low surface energy, SH can be incorporated. Owing to the SH's wide range of inherent properties such as stain-resistant, self-cleaning, flame retardant, oil/water separation, and so forth as well as tunable functionalities such as electrical conductivity, photocatalytic activity, UV-protection, and so forth, the development of SH fabrics has gained a lot of research attention in recent years. In this context, the present review focuses on the different applications of SH fabrics and their recent research progress.
The spread of infectious diseases by the bacterial cells through hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) has become a major threat throughout the world. Fabrics used in the healthcare sector such as bedsheets, healthcare uniforms, and patient gowns can act as growing substrates for infectious bacterial cells and have become one of the causes of the spread of HAIs. The development of MDR by the bacterial cells further makes the situation worse. However, the metal ion toxicity and generation of reactive oxygen species by the metal/metal oxide-based nanoparticles (NPs) have the ability to counteract the proliferation of MDR bacterial strains. In this context, several NPs have been synthesized and functionalized over fabric to impart antibacterial activity. This process could hinder bacterial growth and biofilm formation over fabrics and thus, can prevent the spread of HAIs through contaminated fabrics. Therefore, the present review focuses on the types of NPs that are utilized to develop antibacterial fabrics.
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