Synthesis and characterization of photoreactive silica nanoparticles for super-hydrophobic cotton fabrics application

Abstract

In this research, a novel method was developed to improve the super-hydrophobic stability of cotton fabrics without affecting the washing ability. The cotton fabrics were treated with hybrid photoreactive silica nanoparticles (denoted as silica-N 3 ) and hexadecyltrimethoxysilane under ultraviolet light. Silica nanoparticles were synthesized by grafting an azido group onto silica and confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance, carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Untreated and treated cotton fabrics were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. Wettability was investigated by water contact angle (WCA) and water shedding angle (WSA). Moreover, the super-hydrophobic durability of coated cotton fabrics was evaluated by washing tests. The results showed that the treated cotton fabrics exhibited excellent chemical stability and outstanding non-wettability with a WCA of 154.9 for a 5 mL water droplet and a WSA of 8.7 for a 15 mL water droplet. In addition, the super-hydrophobic cotton fabric showed excellent washing durability. After 30 cycles, the contact angle was still larger than 135 .Super-hydrophobic surfaces have been widely used in different areas due to their excellent water-repellent and self-cleaning properties. In nature, there are various kinds of highly super-hydrophobic surfaces, such as lotus leaves, butterfly wings, water striders and duck feathers. 1-4 Super-hydrophobic surfaces have both a water contact angle (WCA) greater than 150 and water shedding angle (WSA) less than 10 , on which a water droplet, almost a sphere, can easily rolls off. 5,6 Many studies have demonstrated that the super-hydrophobicity arises from the combination of hierarchical micro-and nano-structures of the surface and low surface energy. 7-11 Based on the principle, the design and fabrication of super-hydrophobic surfaces have been conducted by different methods, such as layer-by-layer self-assembly, 12 sol-gel, 13,14 electrospinning, 15 chemical vapor deposition 16 and electrochemical reaction. 17 Actually, the sol-gel technique can be widely applied to fabricate super-hydrophobic surfaces because of its extraordinary advantages. For instance, attempts have been made to develop super-hydrophobic surfaces from

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