Fabrication and Potential Applications of Highly Durable Superhydrophobic Polyethylene Terephthalate Fabrics Produced by In-Situ Zinc Oxide (ZnO) Nanowires Deposition and Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Packaging

Abstract

Considerable attention has been devoted to the in-situ deposition of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires (ZnO-NWs) on the surface of organic supports, due to their very wide applications in superhydrophobicity, UV shielding, and nanogenerators. However, the poor interfacial bond strength between ZnO-NWs and its support limits their applications. Herein, we developed a facile process to grow robust ZnO-NWs on a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric surface through simultaneous radiation-induced graft polymerization, hydrothermal processing, and in-situ nano-packaging; the obtained materials were denoted as PDMS@ZnO-NWs@PET. The introduction of an adhesion and stress relief layer greatly improved the attachment of the ZnO-NWs to the support, especially when the material was subjected to extreme environment conditions of external friction forces, strong acidic or alkaline solutions, UV-irradiation and even washing with detergent for a long time. The PDMS@ZnO-NWs@PET material exhibited excellent UV resistance, superhydrophobicity, and durability. The ZnO-NWs retained on the fabric surface even after 30 cycles of accelerated washing. Therefore, this process can be widely applied as a universal approach to overcome the challenges associated with growing inorganic nanowires on polymeric support surfaces.

Bacteria Adhesion of Textiles Influenced by Wettability and Pore Characteristics of Fibrous Substrates

“…For example, as a preventative measure to bacterial growth on textiles, various antimicrobial treatments such as quaternary ammonium compounds, triclosan, and chitosan have been incorporated into fibers [ 9 ]; however, those materials often fail to kill every organism effectively. Biocidal nanoparticles including silver [ 10 , 11 , 12 ], copper [ 12 , 13 ], titanium dioxide [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], and zinc oxide [ 17 , 18 , 19 ] are also used, where silver is particularly effective at interfering with bacterial metabolism. However, the adverse effect of those reactive species on human cells is still obscure, and the environmental and toxicological [ 20 , 21 , 22 ] concerns about using nanoparticles still remain.…”

Economic Friendly ZnO-Based UV Sensors Using Hydrothermal Growth: A Review

“…Hydrothermal method is carried out in an aqueous solution by an autoclave system [ 2 , 33 , 34 , 37 , 41 ]. It contains two typical steps as illustrated in Figure 3 .…”

“…Vijayakumar et al presented ZnO nanotubes synthesized by hydrothermal method in autoclave for 4 h at 90 °C for CO gas sensing [ 83 ]. Hu et al hydrothermally synthesized ZnO nanowires on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics at 95 °C for 4 h [ 34 ]. The as-grown nanowires were treated hydrophobically by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) for lotus effect.…”

“…Over decades, the hydrothermal technique has proven beneficial for the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures on either rigid or flexible substrates. Rigid substrates are often concerned about glass [ 2 , 22 , 33 , 44 , 48 , 59 , 61 ], whereas flexible substrates include silicon [ 45 , 100 ], polyimide (PI) [ 44 , 45 , 48 , 100 ], PET [ 19 , 34 , 68 ], polycarbonate (PC) [ 48 , 100 ], Kapton [ 101 ], PDMS [ 17 ], carbon fiber [ 17 , 29 ] and paper [ 17 ].…”

“…Excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability and chemical stability, as well as amazing electrical and optical properties are also some great characteristics of ZnO [ 12 , 13 , 15 , 17 , 20 , 25 , 32 , 33 ]. Meanwhile, various morphologies of ZnO nanomaterials have been investigated, such as nanoparticles, nanowires, nanoneedles and nanotubes, which accordingly expand their applications in various fields [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 19 , 34 ].…”