Synthesis and characterization of photoresponsive POSS-based polymers and their switchable water and oil wettability on cotton fabric

Abstract

Photoresponsive POSS-based polymers were successfully prepared via radical polymerization. The surface wettability of both water and oil on the polymers coated fabrics can be intelligently controlled by applying irradiation with UV or visible light.

Switchable and Reversible Superhydrophobic Surfaces: Part One

“…Organic chemicals containing photochromic functional groups such as azobenzenes [115], diarylethenes, spiropyrans [116], bipyridyl ethylenes [117], stilbenes [118] or pyrimidines [119] can follow a reversible transition by UV/vis light, which can lead to differences of wettability. Among them, azobenzene group and its derivatives are extremely promising as photosensitive materials and were highly studied in the literature [120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135]. The azobenzene group is able to reversely switch from the trans to the cis isomer by UV light and visible light irradiation, as shown in Figure 8 [121].…”

“…Other works showed the possibility to modify cotton and paper substrates with these kinds of photosensitive polymers [127][128][129]. Using polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) and fluorinated azobenzene, Gao et al reported the possibility to obtain cotton fabrics with switchable from superhydrophobic/superoleophobic to highly hydrophobic/oleophobic [128,129]. Indeed, many works were dedicated to the switching from superhydrophobic (low adhesion) to parahydrophobic (high adhesion) after UV irradiation.…”