A simple cost-effective and eco-friendly wet chemical process for the fabrication of superhydrophobic cotton fabrics

Superhydrophobic surfaces were created on hydrophilic cotton fabrics by a simple wet chemical process. The fabric was immersed in a colloidal suspension of zinc hydroxide followed by subsequent hydrophobization with stearic acid. The wettability of the modified cotton fabric sample was studied by water contact angle (WCA) and water shedding angle (WSA) measurements. The modified cotton fabrics exhibited superhydrophobicity with a WCA of 151° for 8 μL water droplet and a WSA of 5-10° for 40 μL water droplet. The superhydrophobic cotton sample was also characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The method is simple, eco-friendly and cost-effective and can be applied to large area of cotton fabric materials. It was shown that superhydrophobicity of the fabric was due to the combined effect of surface roughness imparted by zinc hydroxide and the low surface energy of stearic acid.