Coating of cotton fabric with ZnO/graphene composite to improve water repellent properties.

Zinc oxide nanorods/Graphene (ZnO NRs/Gr) were synthesized using an easy and fast method; spray for ZnO seed and graphene deposition and hydrothermal for ZnO NRs. The sample was varied by using different ZnO seed precursor of 0.1 M, 0.2 M, and 0.3 M. We found that the greater the concentration of ZnO led to a decrease in porosity, accompanied by an increase in the water contact angle of 150°, 153°, and 155°. The XRD results confirmed that there was no shift in the ZnO peak, which indicated that there was no significant structural change due to the lattice strain. UV-Vis analysis obtained a band gap of ∼3.4 eV and an excited state of ∼4 eV. Based on the results obtained, ZnO NRs/Graphene can be a promising waterproof coating material on cotton fabrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]