Cotton fabrics with superhydrophobic, antibacterial,
UV protection,
and photothermal properties were developed using Ag/PDMS coatings,
and the role of coating formulations on the obtained functionalities
was studied. Specific attention was paid to understanding the relationships
between the fabrics’ superhydrophobicity and antibacterial
activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. UV protection performance of Ag/PDMS
coatings was thoroughly evaluated based on the variation of UV transmission
rate through coated fabrics and photoinduced chemiluminescence spectra.
Moreover, the effect of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and PDMS on
developing a photothermal effect on fabrics was discussed. It was
found that the content of Ag NPs and PDMS played critical roles in
determining the water contact angle (WCA) on modified fabrics. The
largest WCA was 171.31°, which was durable even after numerous
accelerated wash cycles and abrasions. Antibacterial activity of fabrics
showed the positive effect of pure PDMS in bacterial growth inhibition.
Moreover, it was found that the antibacterial performance was greatly
affected by the content of Ag NPs loaded on fabrics rather than their
superhydrophobic status. Moreover, increasing the content of Ag NPs
boosted the UV protection level of fabrics, improved fabrics photostability,
and reduced the UV transmission rate through fabrics. Testing the
photothermal effect confirmed that the content of Ag NPs and PDMS
both played prominent roles, where Ag acted as a photothermal agent
and PDMS determined the NIR reflection rate from the coated surface.
The modified fabrics were characterized using TGA, SEM, FTIR, and
XRD techniques, and it was confirmed that using a higher amount of
PDMS increased the amount of Ag NPs deposition on fabrics.