Fabrication of PDMS-ZPZ-PET Multifunctional Fabric and Its Synergetic Enhancement of Superhydrophobicity, Broadband Microwave Absorption, and Photothermal Conversion

With the increasingly severe electromagnetic wave (EMW) pollution, developing comfortable and durable multifunctional electromagnetic wave absorption (EWA) textiles has become an urgent need. In this work, a functional textile integrating superhydrophobicity, EWA performance, and photothermal property was successfully fabricated via the atomized spraying method. A ZIF-8/PPy/ZIF-8 (ZPZ) sandwich structure was constructed on polyester (PET) fabric, followed by surface modification with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). Benefiting from the synergistic effect of the ZPZ structure, the middle PPy layer contributes to dielectric loss. ZIF-8 constructs a macroscopic multilevel scattering framework to optimize impedance matching, while it provides high-density polarization sites to enhance dielectric loss, which achieves broadband strong absorption. At a thickness of 3.4 mm, the minimum reflection loss (RLmin) is −54.55 dB and the maximum effective absorption bandwidth (EABmax) is 7.92 GHz. PDMS can not only adjust the complex impedance coefficient for electromagnetic wave absorption, but also offers a self-cleaning property and durable superhydrophobicity to protect the stability of the internal structure, capable of withstanding repeated washing, abrasion, and chemical erosion. Additionally, the conjugated molecular structure in PPy features abundant delocalized π electrons and a narrow band gap. PDMS-ZPZ-PET fabric demonstrates highly efficient and stable photothermal performance over multiple cycles. This simple and effective preparation method offers a research direction for the advancement of high-performance EWA textiles.