Wrapped by periodically wrinkled skin, soft earthworm shows excellent robustness against sticky soil. Mimicking this deformation adaptability, here, we report an ultradurable superhydrophobic fabric by exploiting the formation of adaptive, soft wrinkled poly­(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) skins. Uniform wrinkles are created on woven fabric fibers due to the surface instability of PDMS coating with a cross-linking gradient induced by Ar plasma treatment. Both the surface topography of wrinkles and the viscoelasticity of the underlying compliant layer to release stress endow the treated superhydrophobic fabrics with extraordinary durability, withstanding 800 standard laundries or 1000 rubbing cycles under 44.8 kPa. Additionally, superhydrophobic fabrics are self-healable after heating or plasma treatment. This insight of engineering soft skins with periodic submicron surface topography and gradient modulus provides a pathway for the design of ultradurable, multifunctional wearables.

In this paper, a super-hydrophobic cotton fabric was fabricated by low-pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor enhanced deposition (LP-PECVD) with lauryl methacrylate (LMA) as the functional monomer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were used to analyze the changes of surface morphology and chemical composition of the cotton fabrics surface, respectively. A randomly wrinkled morphology was exhibited by SEM and AFM. The combination of the low surface energy film of LMA and micro-nano-scale structure resulted in the super-hydrophobicity of modified cotton fabrics. The reactive species in LMA/Ar plasma were studied by optical emission spectroscopy, and based on the results of the test, the reaction principle in the plasma reaction chamber was discussed. It was proved that the LMA film is polymerized by chemical bonds on the surface of cotton fibers. The water repellency, washing stability, water-vapor transmission, air permeability and tensile property of fabrics were also discussed. We found that a washing-stable and breathable super-hydrophobic cotton fabric can be achieved after treatment without decreasing the tensile property.

The existing coating systems used for the preparation of super-hydrophobic surfaces are facing new challenges because the use of organic solvents and long-carbon-chain organic fluorine monomers is banned. In this article, the authors have proven that by using inductively coupled plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) with argon (Ar), which is a completely dry process, lauryl methacrylate (LMA) can produce a stable super-hydrophobic coating effect. The effect of electron temperature on the super-hydrophobicity of cotton fabrics is investigated in terms of water repellency, chemical composition, and surface morphology. It is found that the improvement in the hydrophobicity of cotton fabric is attributed to the deposition of alkyl and ester groups, and the formation of a micro-nano-structure on the surface of the fabric after plasma treatment. The electron temperature plays an important role in achieving the super-hydrophobicity of cotton fabrics. The plasma-enhanced coating may offer a safe and dry super-hydrophobic technique with diverse applications.

Cotton bers as original materials of cotton fabrics have a widely application due to its perfect hygroscopicity, air permeability and largest annual output. However, cotton materials have potential safety hazard during its application because of ammability (limiting oxygen index is about 18%). In order to improve the ame retardancy of cotton bers and reduce the damage of its mechanical properties, novel P/Si based ame retardant (PFR) nanoparticles were synthesized by one-step radical polymerization. Vinyl phosphoric acid and tetramethyl divinyl disiloxane were introduced into the nanoparticles. The structure, morphology and thermal stability of PFR was characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), eld emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), thermogravimetric analysis test (TGA). Durable ame retardant cotton bers were prepared by dip-coating and plasma induced crosslinking methods. Micro-calorimeter (MCC) characterization showed that the peak of heat release rate (pHRR) and the total heat release were reduced by 47.3% and 29.8% for modi ed cotton bers compared with pure cotton bers. Limiting oxygen index (LOI) of modi ed cotton bers was increased to 27%. The residue carbon of modi ed cotton bers was 19.0% at 700 o C, while the value of pure cotton bers was 3.0%. Besides, durability of the modi ed cotton bers was approved by cyclic washing test. In addition, ame retardant mechanism was revealed by collecting and analyzing condensed and gaseous pyrolysis products. The data of FE-SEM for residue carbon, FT-IR spectra of products at different pyrolysis temperatures and pyrolysis gas chromatography mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) showed that PFR was a synergistic ame retardant contained barrier and quenching effecting applied on cotton materials.

Super-hydrophobic fabrics have shown great potential during the last decade owing to their novel functions and enormous potential for diver’s applications. Surface textures and low surface energy coatings are the keys to high water repellency. However, the toxicity of nanomaterials, long perfluorinated side-chain polymers, and the fragile of micro/nano-texture lead to the super-hydrophobic surfaces are confined to small-scale uses. Thus, in this article, a stable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-coated super-hydrophobic poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabric (PDMS-g-PET) is manufactured via dip-plasma crosslinking without changing the wearing comfort. Benefiting from the special wrinkled structure of PDMS film, the coating is durable enough against physical abrasion and repeated washing damage, which is suffered from 100 cycles of washing or 500 abrasion cycles, and the water contact angle is still above 150°. This study promotes the way for the development of environmentally friendly, safe, and cost-efficient for designing durable superhydrophobic coatings for various practical applications.