Superhydrophobic properties of cotton fabrics functionalized with ZnO by electroless deposition |
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Authors: | Nicoleta Preda Monica Enculescu Irina Zgura Marcela Socol Elena Matei Violeta Vasilache Ionut Enculescu |
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Affiliation: | 1. National Institute of Materials Physics, Magurele, Bucharest, P.O. Box MG-7, R-77125, Romania;2. University of Suceava, University Str. 13, 720229 Suceava, Romania |
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Abstract: | Cotton fabrics were coated with arrays of ZnO hexagonal prisms using an electroless (catalytic/autocatalytic) deposition process. A typical three step method, similar to those used for electroless deposition of metals on insulating substrates, consisting of pre-activation, activation and deposition steps was employed. The low-dimensional ZnO particles were grown from an aqueous solution containing zinc nitrate as source of zinc ions and dimethylamineborane as reducing agent. The as-obtained ZnO-coated cotton fabrics were characterized from the point of view of structure by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD studies demonstrate that the ZnO particles have a hexagonal wurtzite crystalline structure. The SEM observations prove that the cotton fibers are homogeneously covered by hexagonal prisms which have uniform base size of approximately 500 nm and height of 1 μm. Optical spectroscopy measurements show that the functionalization with ZnO strongly decreases the transmittance in the UV–vis region of the cotton fabrics. An important characteristic is that the ZnO-functionalized cotton fabrics exhibit superhydrophobicity, with water contact angles exceeding 150°. The technique described is highly reproducible, easy scalable and cheap, allowing a wide range of applications. |
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Keywords: | Nanostructures Oxides Chemical synthesis Optical properties Surface properties |
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