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Facile fabrication of superhydrophobic and flame-retardant coatings on cotton fabrics via layer-by-layer assembly

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Abstract

The hydrophilicity and intrinsic inflammability of pristine cotton fabrics severely restrict their applications. To overcome these disadvantages, a superhydrophobic and flame-retardant (SFR) coating with micro-nano hierarchical structures was fabricated onto cotton fabric by sequentially depositing branched poly(ethylenimine), ammonium polyphosphate (APP) and fluorinated silica@polydimethylsiloxane composite (F-SiO2@PDMS) via facile dip-coating and layer-by-layer assembly methods. The SFR cotton fabric not only exhibited superhydrophobicity with contact angle of 158°, but also possessed excellent self-cleaning and antifouling properties as well as superior thermal stability and acid/alkali resistance of superhydrophobicity. Interestingly, the SFR coating with hydrophilic property led by plasma etching could gradually recover to superhydrophobicity after heating at 100 °C for 2 h. Moreover, when suffering to fire, the SFR coating could generate intumescent char layers rapidly and extinguish the fire due to the synergistic effect of F-SiO2@PDMS and APP, providing outstanding flame-retardant properties to cotton fabric.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are appreciated for the financial support of the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2017B090915002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Lab of Guangdong Province for High Property and Functional Polymer Materials, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, People’s Republic of China

    Dongmei Lin, Xingrong Zeng, Hongqiang Li & Xuejun Lai

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  1. Dongmei Lin
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  2. Xingrong Zeng
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  3. Hongqiang Li
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Correspondence to Xingrong Zeng.

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Lin, D., Zeng, X., Li, H. et al. Facile fabrication of superhydrophobic and flame-retardant coatings on cotton fabrics via layer-by-layer assembly. Cellulose 25, 3135–3149 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-018-1748-9

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