Facile Fabrication of Multifunctional Hybrid Silk Fabrics with Controllable Surface Wettability and Laundering Durability

To obtain a hydrophobic surface, TiO₂ coatings are deposited on the surface of silk fabric using atomic layer deposition (ALD) to realize a hierarchical roughness structure. The surface morphology and topography, structure, and wettability properties of bare silk fabric and TiO₂-coated silk fabrics thus prepared are evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), scanning probe microscope (SPM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), static water contact angles (WCAs), and roll-off angles, respectively. The surfaces of the silk fabrics with the TiO₂ coatings exhibit higher surface roughnesses compared with those of the bare silk fabric. Importantly, the hydrophobic and laundering durability properties of the TiO₂-coated silk fabrics are largely improved by increasing the thickness of the ALD TiO₂ coating. Meanwhile, the ALD process has a litter effect on the service performance of silk fabric. Overall, TiO₂ coating using an ALD process is recognized as a promising approach to produce hydrophobic surfaces for elastic materials.