Stable and self-healing superhydrophobic MnO2@fabrics: Applications in self-cleaning, oil/water separation and wear resistance.

In this work, superhydrophobic fabrics were prepared through an in-situ growth method for fabricating hierarchical flower-like MnO2 nanoparticles on cotton fabric surface and subsequent STA modification, which exhibited multifunction for self-healing, self-cleaning, oil/water separation and wear resistance. After air-plasma treatment, the self-healing MnO2@fabric could restore superhydrophobicity by a short time heat treatment, and the water CA without obvious reduction after 8 cycles. Moreover, the MnO2@fabric could selectively filtrate oil from a mixture of oil and water repeatedly, and demonstrated high efficiency for oil/water separation capability and excellent self-cleaning property. Furthermore, the MnO2@fabric composite possessed high mechanical strength and good wear resistance, its wear rate could be reduced to 1.21×10-14m3 (Nm)-1. The MnO2@fabric still maintained superhydrophobicity even was seriously damaged after the friction test.