Methyltrimethoxysilane as a multipurpose chemical for durable superhydrophobic cotton fabric

A super hydrophobic fabric (SF) has been fabricated by a simple immersion of the pristine cotton fabric into the composite silanes solution of hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) and methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS). However, the cotton fabric treated by HDTMS solely possesses much inferior hydrophobicity as compared with the so-obtained SF and the cotton fabric treated by MTMS remains super hydrophilic. The methyl group in MTMS may be helpful for the long alkyl chain in HDTMS to form a well-ordered structure and thus the hydrophobicity of the composite silane is enhanced. The other benefits of adding MTMS to HDTMS are the shortening of the treating time to obtain the optimum hydrophobicity, which is 4 h for HDTMS and 1.5 h for the composite silanes, and the improving of the laundering / abrading durability of the SF. This work discloses new ways in understanding the silanes interaction and enlightens us on exploiting durable SF for practical application.