Robust superhydrophobic and wrinkle-recovering fabric based on shape memory epoxy

Self-cleaning and crease-recovering are of special significance to increase the value of the fabrics. To endow the common cotton fabric with such multi-functionalities, a composite coating of shape memory epoxy resin / silica nanoparticles was proposed herein. The so-finished fabric exhibited good superhydrophobic nature with contact angle of 155.8° and crease self-restoring property with a heating wrinkle recovery angle of 144.1°. Moreover, the so-finished fabric possessed excellent stability under mechanical abrasion against sand paper, and ultrasonic vibration in ethanol.