Superhydrophobic PET Fabrics Achieved by Silica Nanoparticles and Water-repellent Agent

We report herein a superhyrodrophobic poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fabric prepared through a biomimetic method of the Lotus effect. To attain the Lotus effect on the PET fabrics, physical roughness and chemical hydrophobicity were controlled by adopting silica nanoparticles and a commercial water-repellent agent, respectively. For this, narrow-size distributed silica nano-particles were prepared by a sol-gel process. The water contact angle on PET fabric treated with both silica nanoparticles and water-repellent agent reached 158 degrees, which was much higher than 137 degrees reached by the fabric treated with the water-repellent agent only.