Facile Construction of Versatile Cotton Fabrics with Robust Hydrophobicity, Self-Cleaning and Oil–Water Separation

In this paper, several novel cotton fabrics (named as PA-0-C, PA-5-C, PA-10-C and PA-15-C) decorated with multi-functions as robust hydrophobicity, self-cleaning and oil–water separation were rapidly fabricated by a eco-friendly dip-coating process, which does not require complex or time-consuming fabrication process. The exceptional water repellency and silver mirror phenomenon could be observed on the surface of synthesized cotton fabrics. Additionally, the effect of cross-linker contents on the washing durability and abrasion stability was fully studied. Results demonstrate that PA-10-C exhibits the best washing durability and abrasion stability. However, the films of PA-15-C are more likely to split away because of its hardness, resulting a sharp decrease of water contact angles from 144.7° to 125.1° after 25 washing cycles. On the other hand, the water contact angles of proposed cotton fabrics are still above 136° after immersing in acid–alkali solutions for 12 h, indicating satisfactory chemical stability. Thermal-gravimetric analysis confirms that the cross-linked polyacrylates can decelerate the thermal decomposition of cotton fabrics. Apart from this, the PA-15-C sample possesses the superior self-cleaning property and outstanding selective absorption of dichloromethane under the water. Overall, the newly fabricated cotton fabrics could be reasonably expected to have widespread applications.