Hydrophobic properties of textile materials: robustness of hydrophobicity

Extremely hydrophobic surfaces have been receiving considerable interest, such as in the contexts of self-cleaning glass or clothes, antifouling paintings, and the reduction of friction drag. A large variety of treatments permits the obtainment of (super)hydrophobic textile surfaces. The point here is to investigate the role of different geometrical textile parameters on the hydrophobicity, and more particularly, on the robustness of this property. The influences of solid surface roughness on the wetting behavior are commonly studied for model solid textures while textile roughness is largely deformable. A laboratory test method is suggested to evaluate this robustness. Some hydrophobic fibrous structures were prepared (using classical woven fabrics and pile fabrics) to investigate the influence of textile structures on their static and forced wetting properties. Static contact angles, contact angle hysteresis, and the contact angle after compression were measured. The meso- and micro-structures appeared to influence either the static wetting or the robustness of the hydrophobicity after compression.