EFFECT OF ULTRASONIC WASHING ON THE PROPERTIES OF SUPERHYDROPHOBIC COTTON FABRIC COATED WITH EPOXY COMPOSITE FILM

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate properties of cotton fabric samples coated with epoxy composite film filled with APTES-modified silica (SiO2) nanoparticles. The characteristics of superhydrophobic fabrics were investigated as function of the durability of ultrasonic washing. As-prepared samples, the fabric coated with 20 vol% SiO2 modified APTES exhibited typical characteristic of superhydrophobic material having high water contact angle (WCA) of 152° and low contact angle hysteresis (CAH). The values of WCA and CAH of fabrics slightly decreased with increasing number of washing cycles. But even after 10 washing cycles the samples showed almost spherical drops of common household liquids (water, coffee, juice, honey, and ketchup sauce) on their surface, indicating their excellent self-cleaning ability. Also stains of graphite powder (as model for dust) on the coated fabrics were easily rinsed out with water. Moreover, the coated specimens may have potential to be used for oil/water separation: their separation efficiency was higher than 99%, and was as high as 97% after 10 washing cycles.

Keywords

• Aminopropyltriethoxysilane
• Silica
• Superhydrophobic
• Ultrasonic washing
• Durability