Multifunctional superhydrophobic polyester/cotton fabric with photocatalytic degradation, photothermal de-icing, and oil–water separation

With the increasingly severe environmental pollution, developing multifunctional fabrics integrating photocatalysis, oil–water separation, and photothermal anti-icing properties has become a significant challenge. In this study, a photothermal superhydrophobic fabric was successfully fabricated via a simple impregnation method, with polyester/cotton woven fabric (PTCO) as the substrate and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), dopamine hydrochloride (DA), and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles as raw materials. This work aimed to overcome the limitations of weak photothermal response and slow heating rate in traditional superhydrophobic fabrics while enhancing their functional versatility and application potential. The prepared PDA-ZnO@PDMS@PTCO exhibited a water contact angle of 160.3 ± 1.6° and demonstrated excellent stability. Owing to the photocatalytic property of ZnO, the modified PTCO achieved degradation rates of 97.1 ± 1.8% for methylene blue and 95.8 ± 1.2% for rhodamine B solutions. Furthermore, modifying ZnO with PDA endowed it with efficient photothermal performance. Under xenon lamp irradiation for 300 s, the surface temperature increased from 22.6 to 99.8 ℃, melting 1 cm 3 of ice within 146 s. Moreover, it exhibited high separation efficiency (96.3 ± 0.3–98.5 ± 0.2%) for six kinds of oil–water mixtures. The PDA-ZnO@PDMS@PTCO with photothermal and photocatalytic properties provides a promising approach for marine oil pollution treatment.