UV-curable superhydrophobic organosilicon/silica hybrid coating on cotton fabric for oil-water separation

With the increasing occurrences of industrial oily wastewater emissions and oil spills, considerable efforts have been made to develop superhydrophobic materials for oil-water separation. Herein, we report a facile dipping-UV curing approach to fabricate superhydrophobic organosilicon/silica hybrid coating with crosslinked network structure on cotton fabric via thiol-ene reaction between thiol-functionalized silica nanoparticles (SH-SiO(2)NPs) and acryloyloxy-terminated polydimethylsiloxane (A-PDMS-A). With the optimized mass ratio of SH-SiO(2)NPs to A-PDMS-A at 0.2, the water contact angle of the fabric reached 155 degrees and the water sliding angle was 8 degrees, exhibiting excellent water repellency. Furthermore, the superhydrophobic cotton fabric possessed self-cleaning ability and good surface stability. In addition, the fabric was successfully applied for effective oil-water separation, and the separation efficiency reached up to 99.06%. Even after 15 cycles, the separation efficiency still maintained 98.93%, demonstrating excellent reusability. Our findings stand out as a new tool to fabricate UV-curable superhydrophobic coating on cotton fabric for efficient oil-water separation.