Cotton fabrics with single-faced superhydrophobicity.

This article reports on the fabrication of cotton fabrics with single-faced superhydrophobicity using a simple foam finishing process. Unlike most commonly reported superhydrophobic fabrics, the fabrics developed in this study exhibit asymmetric wettability on their two faces: one face showing superhydrophobic behavior (highly nonwetting or water-repellent characteristics) and the other face retaining the inherent hydrophilic nature of cotton. The superhydrophobic face exhibits a low contact angle hysteresis of θa/θr = 151°/144° (θa, advancing contact angle; θr, receding contact angle), which enables water drops to roll off the surface easily so as to endow the surface with well-known self-cleaning properties. The untreated hydrophilic face preserves its water-absorbing capability, resulting in 44% of the water-absorbing capacity compared to that of the original cotton samples with both sides untreated (hydrophilic). The single-faced superhydrophobic fabrics also retain moisture transmissibility that is a...