A facile approach to develop multifunctional cotton fabrics with hydrophobic, self-cleaning and UV protection properties using ZnO particles and fluorocarbon

The presented work reported a facile and low-cost approach for creating multifunctional cotton fabrics with hydrophobic, self-cleaning and UV protection properties. The facile dip-pad-dry-cure coating technique was employed to modify the cotton fabric surfaces with 1-3 wt% concentration of ZnO nanoparticles. The characterizations of surface morphology, UV protection and chemical self-cleaning behavior of the ZnO coated fabrics have been carried out. Then, fluorocarbon (FC) was applied on the ZnO coated fabrics to fabricate the hydrophobic surfaces. The physical self-cleaning properties were assessed through hydrophobicity and contact angle measurements. For fabrics surface coated with 1, 2 and 3 wt % ZnO particles, static water contact angles of 139.5 degrees, 143.1 degrees, and 145.7 degrees were detected, respectively. According to Cassie-Baxter model, the wetted solid fraction was estimated to be 52%, 60% and 72% for the samples coated with the 1%, 2% and 3% wt % ZnO particles, respectively. Further, the chemical self-cleaning performance has been examined by photocatalytic degradation of dye stains on ZnO coated fabrics under UV exposure.