Anti-fouling Hydrophobic Coatings via Single-step Silane Hydrolysis

Superhydrophobic coatings have tremendous potential for cotton fabric applications in antifouling and antibacterial. Despite great scientific and industrial interest in waterproof cellulosic cotton, its application in cotton fibres has been hindered by complicated processes, templates requirement, and limitations in scale-up production. Herein, we prepared a hydrophobic coating using one-step hydrolysis of siloxane. Through the reaction of long-chain organosilanes with acid, micro/nanostructures with low surface energy were constructed on the cotton fabric surface. Notably, the coating not only imparts self-cleaning and anti-bacterial adhesion properties to cotton fabrics, but also maintains a contact angle of over 140° after treatment with acid, alkali, organic solvents and extreme temperatures. In addition, the coating can be applied to a wide range of metals, plastics and paper to provide antifouling properties. This study believes that these excellent overall properties possess enormous potential for various applications involving anti-fouling.