Janus flame-retardant polyester fabric with one-way water transfer for fog collection: Influence of plasma duration, aluminum phosphate, and TiO nanoparticles.

Significant efforts have been made to create Janus fabrics including designing their structure, employing electrospraying and electrospinning, and applying chemical and physical surface treatments to enhance the effective and directed transport of water. In this paper, a Janus industrial fabric with desirable properties such as one-way water transfer, fog collection, mechanical durability, and flame resistance was prepared. The creation of superhydrophobic surfaces on polyester fabrics involved the attachment of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (NTO) onto the fabric using aluminum phosphate (AP) adhesive and then coating with fluoroacrylate polymer (F) as a low-energy surface material. One-sided O/Ar plasma technology was used on a superhydrophobic fabric to generate asymmetric wettability. As plasma duration rises, the depth of surface modification and oxidation intensifies. By altering the duration of plasma exposure, this fabric gained the ability to trap, transport, and collect fog. At an exposure duration of 3 min, the fabric attained one-way water transfer. The water contact angle (WCA) on the hydrophilic side was 38°, whereas the WCA on the opposing side was 120°. The fog collecting efficiency at this time was approximately 8.1 mg cm min. FESEM and EDX confirmed the distribution and adhesion of NTO to the fabric surface with AP. AP gave the fabric great flame resistance and a limiting oxygen index (LOI) of 32.8 %. Mechanical properties were unaffected, but air permeability and the CIE whiteness index decreased.