Superhydrophobic cotton fabrics have been prepared by the
electrostatic self-assembly of silica nanoparticles and subsequent
surface hydrophobic treatment. The surface morphology of the
resulting cotton fibers can be adjusted by the number of the
PAH/SiO2 layers assembled. Although the criterion of static contact
angle larger than 150◦ can be easily achieved with only one
assembly cycle, the contact angle hysteresis varied considerably
depending on the assembly cycles; the fabrics showed sticky property
with a contact angle hysteresis higher than 45◦ for 1 or 3
assembly cycles, while slippery superhydrophobicity with a contact
angle hysteresis lower than 10◦ was obtained for the cotton
fabrics assembled with 5 multilayers or more. A superhydrophobic
fabric boat of 8.0cm3 in volume exhibited a remarkable loading
capacity with a maximum loading of 11.6 or 12.2 g when the boat
weight is included. Moreover, such cotton fabrics had a reasonable
durability to withstand at least 30 machine washing cycles