Hydrophobic Coatings on Cotton Obtained by in Situ Plasma Polymerization of a Fluorinated Monomer in Ethanol Solutions

Abstract

Plasma polymerization using hydrophobic monomers in the gas phase is a well-known technology to generate hydrophobic coatings. However, synthesis of functional hydrophobic coatings using plasma technology in liquids has not yet been accomplished. This work is consequently focused on polymerization of a liquid fluorinated monomer on cotton fabric initiated by atmospheric plasma in a dielectric barrier discharge configuration. Functional hydrophobic coatings on cotton were successfully achieved using in situ atmospheric plasma-initiated polymerization of fluorinated monomer dissolved in ethanol. Gravimetric measurements reveal that the amount of polymer deposited on cotton substrates can be modulated with the concentration of monomer in ethanol solution, and cross-linking reactions occur during plasma polymerization of a fluorinated monomer even without the presence of a cross-linking agent. FTIR and XPS analysis were used to study the chemical composition of hydrophobic coatings and to get insights into the physicochemical processes involved in plasma treatment. SEM analysis reveals that at high monomer concentration, coatings possess a three-dimensional pattern with a characteristic interconnected porous network structure. EDX analysis reveals that plasma polymerization of fluorinated monomers takes place preferentially at the surface of cotton fabric and negligible polymerization takes place inside the cotton fabric. Wetting time measurements confirm the hydrophobicity of cotton coatings obtained although equilibrium moisture content was slightly decreased. Additionally, the abrasion behavior and resistance to washing of plasma-coated cotton has been evaluated.

Application of atmospheric pressure plasma technology for textile surface modification

“…When using gaseous monomer, the thickness of the coating can be regulated by the plasma treatment time. 148…”

“…When using gaseous monomer, the thickness of the coating can be regulated by the plasma treatment time. 148 A number of studies are focused on obtaining water repellent textiles using different monomers such as hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) and fluorinated monomers. Morent et al 149,150 have investigated the organic-inorganic nature of HMDSO polymeric films deposited on PET substrates using argon and argon/air DBD treatment.…”

“…A high degree of hydrophobicity was obtained, probably due to the attachment of different fluorocarbon species on the fiber surface. Molina et al 148 obtained hydrophobic coatings on cotton fabrics by DBD plasma initiated in situ polymerization of a liquid fluorinated monomer (1 H,1 H,2 H,2 H-heptadecafluorodecylmethacrylate) dissolved in ethanol and placed directly over the sample before plasma treatment. Additionally, the application of divinylbenzene (DVB) at low concentration as a liquid crosslinking hydrophobic monomer improved the polymer deposition.…”

Superhydrophobic textile: treatment in aqueous solutions of aluminum salts

“…Nowadays, there are many known methods for modifying the surface of textile materials, these include: treatment in aqueous solutions of various compositions; sol-gel method (Yang M. et al 2018;Lin D. et al 2019;Liang J. et al 2013); methods of deposition nanoparticle to create roughness on surface , chemical vapor deposition (CVD) (Şimşek B. and Karaman M. 2020) and plasma-chemical treatment (Gaiolas C. et al 2013;Pandit P. et al 2020;Belhaj Khalifa I. and Ladhari N. 2019;Xu L. et al 2019;Samanta K. K. et al 2016;Molina R. et al 2017). The essence of the methods consists of the formation of thin hydrophobic layers on the materials surface (Daoud W. A. et al 2004) or inoculation of various functional groups that change the surface properties cardinally [18].…”

Fabrication of Durably Superhydrophobic Cotton Fabrics by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Treatment with a Siloxane Precursor

“…Shuai Liu [18] has prepared durable superhydrophobic fabric through post-crosslinking of silane achieved by vacuum plasma in Argon. Ricardo Molina [19] has studied the preparation of hydrophobic coating using plasma technology in a liquid fluorinated monomer. Pengyun Xu and Larry Pershin [20] have fabricated superhydrophobic ceramic coatings by a one-step solution precursor plasma spray process.…”