The durability of the superhydrophilic superoleophobic fabric was evaluated by various
methods. Firstly, the smart fabric was subjected to a vacuum plasma treatment for 5 minutes,
the fabric turned out to be superomniphilic (both superhydrophilic and superoleophilic), while,
the superoleophobicity will be healed with a constant superhydrophilicity by TFTE treatment
using the silanization process (see Section 3). By repeating air plasma treatment and
fuorosilanization, the surface wettability will be renewed without any declination (see Figure
S10). If the smart fabric was pre-wetted by (or dip-coated in) polar liquids such as water,
DMF or ethanol (see Figure 5A) and subsequently dried in air, almost unchanged
superoleophobicity was reserved as long as the residue after drying was not miscible with
nonpolar oils. By adding acid or base in the dip-coating solution, the fabric endurance to acid
or base was carefully studied. Results of apparent contact angles after 24 h immersion were
shown in Figure 5D, strong alkaline solution can beak the Si-O-C bonding formed through
fluorosilanization as well as the cellulose fiber thus depress the oil-repellency,S22 which could
also be restored by applying a post fluorosilanization. Hexadecane and water contact angles
were measured on the smart fabrics of the aging test carried out in the ambient atmosphere for
different duration. The fabric performance retained intact (see Figure S10).
The abrasion resistance was performed under a commercial Martindale abrasion tester as
reported in the literature.S21 The fabric sample was mounted on the dynamic disk which
tightly contacted with the abradant underneath. A plain fabric was used as abradant and
mounted on the motionless disk. During the test, as the dynamic disk rotated, a pressure of 9
kPa, which is often used to evaluate the coated fabrics for apparel upholstery usages, was
employed by applying weight of standard mass onto the upper shaft, and in the meanwhile the
whole dynamic disk moved across the different area of the abradant surface. Contact angles of
the fabric after abraded for different cycles were recorded. No obvious change of wettability
was observed except a slightly increased surface roughness (see Figure 5C).