Environmentally Friendly, Durably Waterproof, and Highly Breathable Fibrous Fabrics Prepared by One-Step Fluorine-Free Waterborne Coating

Abstract

Waterproof and breathable membranes (WBMs) have drawn broad attention due to their widespread applications in various scientific and industry fields. However, creating WBMs with environment-friendliness and high performance is still a critical and challenging task. Herein, an environmentally friendly fluorine-free WBM with high performance was prepared through electrospinning and one-step dip-coating technology. The fluorine-free waterborne hydroxyl acrylic resin (HAR) emulsion containing long hydrocarbon chains endowed the electrospun polyacrylonitrile/blocked isocyanate prepolymer (PAN/BIP) fibrous membranes with superior hydrophobicity; meanwhile, crosslinking agent BIP ensured strong chemical binding between hydrocarbon segments and fiber substrate. The as-prepared PAN/BIP@HAR fibrous membranes achieve ideal properties with waterproofness of 112.5 kPa and moisture permeability of 12.7 kg m −2 d −1 , which are comparable to the existing high-performance fluorinated WBMs. Besides, the PAN/BIP@HAR membranes also display impressive tensile strength and durability. Significantly, the proposed technology was also applicable to other hydrophilic fiber substrates, such as cellulose acetate and polyamide 6. The successful synthesis of environmentally friendly, durably waterproof, and highly breathable PAN/BIP@HAR membranes not only opens a new avenue to materials design, but also provides promising candidates with tremendous potential in various areas.

Polyurethane-Coated Polyaniline/SiO2 Nanoparticle Electrospun Nanofiber Membranes for Waterproof and Moisture-Permeable Materials

“… Correspondingly, as shown in Figure b, with increasing ratio, the WVTR of the fiber membrane increased from 7.2 to 7.8 kg·m 2 ·d –1 but the air permeability decreased from 140 to 30 mm·s –1 . So, according to the above discussion, it was concluded that the air permeability had a behavior similar to that of the pore size and the WVTR had a behavior similar to that of the porosity of the fibrous membrane. , …”

Advances in the Robustness of Wearable Electronic Textiles: Strategies, Stability, Washability and Perspective

“…The water contact angle (WCA) of the functionalized BIP membrane remained unchanged after 24 h of washing and UV irradiation. On the contrary, the WCA of the membrane without BIP decreased significantly upon 24 h washing (150.6 to 129.9) and UV irradiation (147.5 • to 132.9 • ) (Figure 7j) [220]. Zhu et al developed a highly conductive woven fabric via dip-coating with a homogeneous composite suspension containing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and biomass-derived glucaric acid/chitosan (GA-chitosan) organic salt.…”

Waterproof, breathable and infrared-invisible polyurethane/silica nanofiber membranes for wearable textiles

“…In addition to the morphology and porous structure of nanofiber membranes, surface wettability is also the key to the preparation of breathable and waterproof membranes. [21][22][23] We evaluated the surface wettability of the fibrous membrane by measuring the WCA (Fig. 4e).…”