Improved Hydrophobicity of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Coating with ZnO Nanostructures

Abstract

In this present work, an environmentally safe hydrophobic cotton surface comprising of PDMS and different morphology of Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures via simple dip coating method was developed. ZnO nanosphere and ZnO nanoflakes were synthesized via sol gel method while ZnO nanorods were synthesized via solution precipitation method. The precursors used to prepared ZnO nanospheres, nanoflakes and nanorods are zinc acetate dehydrate, zinc chloride and zinc nitrate tetrahydrate respectively. ZnO nanostructures were analysed using FESEM and XRD. The hydrophobic cotton surface was characterized via FT-IR and WCA analysis. A WCA of 144.15° was achieved when coating the cotton with ZnO nanoflakes (ZnO-NF:PDMS).