Facile fabrication of superhydrophobic and antibacterial dual-functional cotton fabrics for oil–water separation

A simple and green strategy was developed to construct durable superhydrophobic and antimicrobial surface on natural cotton fibers (n-CF) based on the in-situ aqueous construction of ZIF-8 with zinc nitrate as zinc source and dimethylimidazole as organic ligand. A dual-scale n-CF@ZIF-8@HDTMS composite with two-tier hierarchical structure was achieved after hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) modification, expressing excellent superhydrophobic and superoleophilic performance with the water CA of 156°. The cotton fabrics could be easily controlled to absorb the oil from water as oil absorbents, showing high oil/water separation efficiency. In addition, the cotton fabric showed remarkable and durable antibacterial activity against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. This method is simple, and it is particularly suitable for the field of biomedical materials.