Transparent and double sided hydrophobic functionalization of cotton fabric by surfactant-assisted admicellar polymerization of fluoromonomers

Abstract

We report a simple procedure to prepare hydrophobic cotton textiles by admicellar polymerization. By in situ introducing fluoropolymers to cotton fibers to generate dual-sided surface roughness, followed by hydrophobization with octafluoropentyl acrylate, cotton which is normally hydrophilic has been easily changed to be hydrophobic, exhibiting a static water contact angle of 126° for a 20 μL droplet. When an octafluoroalkyl chain is introduced to the cotton surface, the hydrophobic textile also becomes highly oleophilic. After the incorporation of fluoropolymers to the cotton surface, the surface becomes rougher, as demonstrated by SEM analysis.