Superhydrophilic Wrinkle-Free Cotton Fabrics via Plasma and Nanofluid Treatment

We demonstrate in this study a wrinkle-free, superhydrophilic cotton fabric (contact angle ∼0°) by uniformly attaching specially engineered nanoparticles to plasma-pretreated cotton fabric. Because of their highly charged nature, the nanoparticles are firmly anchored on the fabric via electrostatic interactions, as confirmed by microscopy and chemical analyses. The durability of wetting behavior and wrinkle-free property of the nanoparticle-coated fabrics were evaluated via aging, laundering, and abrasion tests. The strongly attached coatings are stable enough to maintain their superhydrophilic nature even after 60 days of aging at room temperature, 50 laundering cycles, and 25 000 abrasion cycles. Moreover, the nanoparticle-coated superhydrophilic fabrics exhibit great wrinkle-recovery property, tensile strength, and abrasion resistance performance up to 25 000 abrasion cycles.