Green and facile preparation of superhydrophobic cotton fabric using cationic POSS/PDMS-modified polyacrylate emulsion for oil–water separation

Superhydrophobic cotton fabric was prepared by coating fluorine-free cationic polyhedral oligomeric siloxane/polydimethylsiloxane-modified polyacrylate emulsion using the pad-bath method. Due to the successful introduction of heptaoctylmethacryloxypropyl polyhedral oligomeric siloxane and monovinyl polydimethylsiloxane, the film with a rough structure and low surface energy was formed on the cotton fabric surface, exhibiting excellent superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 161°. Additionally, the finished cotton fabric showed exceptional self-cleaning and anti-foiling abilities. The finished cotton fabric had a separation efficiency of over 97% for oil–water mixtures and maintained a high separation efficiency of over 96% after 20 cycles of separating the n-hexane/water mixture. In addition, the separation of different water-in-oil emulsions was achieved by overlapping three layers of finished cotton fabric. This suggests that the as-prepared superhydrophobic cotton fabric will be a promising material in application for treating oil–water mixtures and water-in-oil emulsions due to the low-cost, simple fabrication method and the superior separation capabilities. Graphical abstract