Healable superhydrophobicity of novel cotton fabrics modified via one-pot mist copolymerization

We describe a simple one-pot mist copolymerization process to fabricate superhydrophobic cotton fabrics. A mixture solution consisting of a free radical initiator, tert-butyl peroxybenzoate (TBPB), and three monomers, lauryl methacrylate (LMA), 2-isocyanatoethyl methacrylate (IEM), and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGD), is atomized to one side of a cotton fabric and polymerized on the surface. SEM images indicate that the copolymer layer on the cotton fiber surface has a randomly wrinkled morphology exhibiting nanoscale roughness. Wetting tests demonstrate that the modified surface possesses a remarkable superhydrophobicity with multiple healing functionalities. A simple ironing treatment at about 200 °C can recover the degraded superhydrophobicity of the modified cotton fabric suffered from 60 cycles of laundries or 2000 cycles of Martindale abrasion. Notably, the mist copolymerization process has no significant impact on the cotton advantages, such as flexibility, water absorptivity, and vapor permeability.