Preparation of superhydrophobic PET fabric from Al₂O₃–SiO₂ hybrid: geometrical approach to create high contact angle surface from low contact angle materials

In this work we prepare high contact Poly Ethylene Terephthalate (PET) fabric surface from low contact angle materials. Superhydrophobic PET fabric is prepared by coating the fabric with hybrid Al₂O₃–SiO₂ sol. In this case, the high contact angle Al₂O₃–SiO₂ hybrid is created from low contact angle Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ precursors. PET treated with hybrid Al₂O₃–SiO₂ exhibit Water Contact Angle (WCA) as 150°, while PET treated with individual Al₂O₃ sol or SiO₂ sol exhibits lower WCA, (Al₂O₃ WCA = 137°; SiO₂ WCA = 141°). FESEM and AFM investigations show that the hybrid Al₂O₃–SiO₂ sol and individual Al₂O₃ or SiO₂ sol imparted different roughness geometry on the PET fabric surface. We observe surface structure of fish fin-like, particle-like and hybrid fin-particle for treated PET fabric with; Al₂O₃, SiO₂ and hybrid Al₂O₃–SiO₂ sol, under FESEM and AFM observations.AFM observations show the evolution of roughness (Ra) dimension of different surface structures with the order of: SiO₂ < Al₂O₃ < Al₂O₃–SiO₂ (Ra = 31, 63 and 273 nm). We believe that the disparity of the surface geometries lead into different surface WCA. FTIR spectra of Hybrid Al₂O₃–SiO₂ shows additional peak at 902, 850, 557, and 408 cm⁻¹ which can be ascribed to the hybridization structure.